The Sunday Times had an interesting and extremely thoughtful article about the difference between the current wave of science books and the past. I don’t agree with all of it; I think to lump Dawkins, Hawking and Steve Jones together is, to say the lease, a little over simplistic, but I do think they captured what we’re trying to do.
Wonder is not laden with scientistic attitude. It is open-minded and embraces uncertainty. Indeed, the greatest living science writer, EO Wilson, admitted, while contemplating the Amazonian rainforest, that some part of him resisted the scientific impulse to know and explain all. He wanted the wonder and mystery, as well as the knowledge. Wonder also illuminates everything, no matter how small.