Summary
Title: Einstein's Luck: The Truth behind Some of the Greatest Scientific Discoveries
Author: John Waller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198607199
Pro:
• Very well written and engaging prose - suitable for both lay readers and experts
• Highly informative on the history and philosophy of science
Con:
• None
Description:
• Explores myth and reality in the history of science
• Explains the difference between how science is done and the ideals most people hold
• Exposes the truth behind many of the most important scientific discoveries
Book Review
That is a basic lesson readers will derive from John Waller’s recently published Einstein’s Luck: The Truth behind Some of the Greatest Scientific Discoveries. A Research Fellow at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, Waller takes us on an expansive tour of modern scientific research and discovery, illuminating many dark passages and unpleasant situations where the pursuit of scientific truth has too often taken a back seat to self-aggrandizement and the pursuit of fame.
- “Until recent decades, the history of science was largely written by those who wished to place their chosen subject in as favourable a light as possible. The motivations were various. Sometimes they worked at the behest of individual scientists who wanted to make sure that their part in the great drama of discovery did not go unsung. In other cases, the key requirement was a good story. More laudably generations of teachers of scientific subjects have wanted heroes for much he same reason that Livy gave the Roman Horatio: to inspire by example.”
- [...]
- “Although the eventual outcome of a research programme may be a fabulously rich collection of well-attested and highly predictive ideas, the route to this happy state is often far more convoluted than subsequent accounts will allow.”
Some potential readers might assume that Waller’s goal is to trash science, but that would be a mistake. His agenda might be rather iconclastic, but ultimately he hopes to get people to better understand science as a very human process — and this means that science is often plagued by all of the same flaws and problems that afflict human beings and their other various endeavors, like politics or art.
