Fabulous Science : Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery

The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed data that didn't support the case he was making. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity was only 'confirmed' in 1919 because an eminent British scientist massaged his figures. Joseph Lister's famously spotless hospital wards were actually notoriously dirty. Gregor Mendel, supposed father of the science of heredity, never grasped the fundamental principles of 'Mendelian' genetics. The history of science used to be presented as a heroic saga, in which a few far-seeing geniuses overcame the petty opposition of lesser minds to establish new scientific truths. But over recent decades, historians of science have cast a much more critical eye over their subject. Delving into laboratory notebooks and reconstructing once-fierce debates, they have challenged many of our basic assumptions about the nature of science and the roles its greatest heroes played. Fabulous Science reveals many of these findings to the general reader for the first time.; Often startling and always enthralling, they show that some of our most important scientific theories were initially accepted only because famous scientists fudged data, pulled rank, or were propped up by religious and political elites. Striking case-studies show that science is not always driven on by pure rationality: human factors can play at least as big a role in the origin and reception of scientific ideas. Even poorly attested theories can gain widespread acceptance if put forward by scientists with sufficient clout. The new history of science also demonstrates that many standard portraits of scientific heroes are little more than romantic inventions. Classic accounts of men before their time who battled to overcome ignorant opposition before achieving scientific immortality exaggerate the originality of the few and underplay the crucially important contributions of the many. Fabulous Science argues that our view of the history of science has been egregiously distorted by individuals seeking to glorify disciplines and nations, and by famous scientists who unfairly garnered credit properly due to others.; Fabulous Science restores to the history of science its complex personalities, bitter rivalries, and intense human dramas which until recently have been overlain by sanitising myths and misconceptions. Above all, its richly entertaining vignettes will transform the way we think about science, past, present, and future. Title Page......Page 4 Contents......Page 8 Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Introduction: What Is History For?......Page 14 Telling Science As It Is......Page 19 Part I: Right for the Wrong Reasons......Page 23 1: The Pasteurization of Spontaneous Generation......Page 27 'Life Is the Germ, and the Germ Is Life'......Page 31 Were Pasteur's Results Decisive?......Page 36 Spontaneous Generation Equals Evolutionism Equals Heresy......Page 40 The Preconceptions of Louis Pasteur......Page 43 2: The Battle Over the Electron......Page 45 Particles and Waves Before Millikan......Page 47 A Stroke of Luck and a Breakthrough......Page 50 Guilty as Charged......Page 52 Felix Ehrenhaft's Critique......Page 54 More of Millikan's Manipulations......Page 55 Positives and Negatives......Page 57 3: The Eclipse of Isaac Newton: Arthur Eddington's 'Proof' of General Relativity......Page 61 Meet the Teams......Page 66 The Problems......Page 67 The Results Stage......Page 68 The Interpretation Stage......Page 70 Status and Trust......Page 72 In Matters of Gravity, Weight Counts......Page 76 4: Very Unscientific Management......Page 77 'A Little Pennsylvania Dutchman'......Page 81 The Piece-Rate......Page 83 Gillespie, Wolle, and the Piece-Rate......Page 85 5: The Hawthorne Studies: Finding What You Are Looking For......Page 91 First Relay Assembly Group: The Yardstick......Page 94 Second Relay Assembly Group and the Mica Splitters......Page 96 '. . . As Them That Won't See'......Page 98 Changing Horses Mid-Race......Page 99 Seeking Salvation......Page 103 Difficulties With Figures......Page 107 'A Debate With Marx's Ghost'......Page 109 Conclusion to Part One: Sins Against Science?......Page 112 Part II: Telling Science As It Was......Page 121 6: Myth In the Time of Cholera......Page 127 The Causes of Cholera......Page 130 Cholera and Contagion......Page 136 The Germs of the Germ Theory......Page 137 The Myth of Scientific Detachment......Page 140 Was John Snow the Father of Epidemiology?......Page 141 Snow the Synthesizer......Page 142 7: 'The Priest Who Held the Key': Gregor Mendel and the Ratios of Fact and Fiction......Page 145 Classical Mendelian Genetics......Page 148 What Was Gregor Mendel Doing in 1865?......Page 152 Ratios of Dominants and Recessives......Page 156 Segregation, Characters, and Elements......Page 158 The Law of Independent Assortment......Page 162 The Mendelian Ratios......Page 164 Mendel and Darwin -- A Delayed Marriage?......Page 166 Mendel As Founding Father......Page 169 8: Was Joseph Lister Mr. Clean?......Page 173 Why Was Lister Out In the Cold?......Page 177 Was Joseph Lister In Any Sense a Pioneer?......Page 180 Cresting the Wave......Page 182 Reinvention and Renewal......Page 184 9: The Origin of Species By Means of Use-Inheritance......Page 189 Charles Darwin: The Myth......Page 191 'Never Let the Facts Get In the Way of a Good Story'......Page 193 Evolution Before Darwin......Page 194 Growth and Reproduction Are As One......Page 197 The Early Notebooks......Page 200 Darwinism and Use-Inheritance, 1838-59......Page 204 The Indirect Effects of the Environment......Page 205 Pride and Progress......Page 208 Putting Darwinism On Hold......Page 209 Context and Contingency......Page 215 10: 'A Is For Ape, B Is For Bible': Science, Religion, and Melodrama......Page 217 Wilberforce's Waterloo?......Page 221 Science and Religion in Harmony......Page 223 The Young Turks......Page 225 Enemies of Science......Page 228 The Aftermath: Conflict or Compromise?......Page 229 Post Mortem......Page 232 11: Painting Yourself Into a Corner: Charles Best and the Discovery of Insulin......Page 235 The Facts of the Case......Page 238 From Colleagues to Rivals......Page 243 Best Comes In from the Cold......Page 245 The Muddying of the Waters......Page 248 A Twist In the Tale......Page 253 Only Human Nature?......Page 255 12: Alexander Fleming's Dirty Dishes......Page 259 Fortune and Fakery......Page 262 'A Very Well-Known Phenomenon'......Page 266 'My Old Penicillin'......Page 267 'The Period of Failure and Neglect'......Page 269 From Wonder Drug to Reagent . . .......Page 272 The Biochemists Have a Go......Page 276 'This Great Pioneer'......Page 279 13: 'A Decoy of Satan'......Page 281 'The Religious Objection'......Page 286 The View From the Pulpit......Page 289 So Why Resort to Print?......Page 291 Science, Religion, and Myth......Page 294 Conclusion to Part Two: Sins Against History?......Page 297 Notes on Sources......Page 309 Index......Page 315 Annotation The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed 'awkward' data because it didn't support the case he was making. John Snow, the 'first epidemiologist' was doing nothing others had not done before. Gregor Mendel, the supposed 'founder of genetics' never grasped the fundamental principles of'Mendelian' genetics. Joseph Lister's famously clean hospital wards were actually notorious dirty. And Einstein's general relativity was only 'confirmed' in 1919 because an eminent British scientist cooked his figures. These are some of the revelations explored in this book. Drawing on currentHistory of Science scholarship, Fabulous Science shows that many of our greatest heroes of science were less than honest about their experimental data and not above using friends in high places to help get their ideas accepted. It also reveals that the alleged revolutionaries of the history ofscience were often nothing of the sort. Prodigiously able they may have been, but the epithet of the 'man before his time' usually obscures vital contributions made their unsung contemporaries and the intrinsic merits of ideas they overturned. These distortions of the historical record mostly arisefrom our tendency to read the present back into the past. But in many cases, scientists owe their immortality to a combination of astonishing effrontery and their skills as self-promoters The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed 'awkward' data because it didn't support the case he was making. John Snow, the 'first epidemiologist' was doing nothing others had not done before. Gregor Mendel, the supposed 'founder of genetics' never grasped the fundamental principles of 'Mendelian' genetics. Joseph Lister's famously clean hospital wards were actually notorious dirty. And Einstein's general relativity was only 'confirmed' in 1919 because an eminent British scientist cooked his figures. These are just some of the revelations explored in this book. Drawing on current history of science scholarship, Fabulous Science shows that many of our greatest heroes of science were less than honest about their experimental data and not above using friends in high places to help get their ideas accepted. It also reveals that the alleged revolutionaries of the history of science were often nothing of the sort. Prodigiously able they may have been, but the epithet of the 'man before his time' usually obscures vital contributions made their unsung contemporaries and the intrinsic merits of ideas they overturned. These distortions of the historical record mostly arise from our tendency to read the present back into the past. But in many cases, scientists owe their immortality to a combination of astonishing effrontery and their skills as self-promoters. The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed "awkward" data because it didn't support the case he was making. Joseph Lister's famously clean hospital wards were actually notoriously dirty. And Einstein's theory of general relativity was only "confirmed" in 1919 because an eminent British scientist massaged his figures. Drawing on the latest scholarship, John Waller shows that many of our greatest heroes of science were less than honest about their experimental data, and not above using friends in high places to help get their ideas accepted. He reveals how sheer effrontery and self-promotion propelled certain scientists to the fore, obscuring the vital contributions of others and the intrinsic merit of the ideas they overturned. Einstein's Luck is an enthralling and entertaining book, which resurrects the complex personalities, bitter rivalries, and intense human dramas that enliven and illuminate the history of science. "Drawing on the latest scholarship, John Waller shows that many of our greatest heroes of science were less than honest about their experimental data, and not above using friends in high places to help get their ideas accepted. He reveals how sheer effrontery and self-promotion propelled certain scientists to the fore, obscuring the vital contributions of others and the intrinsic merit of the ideas they overturned. Fabulous Science is an entertaining book, which resurrects the complex personalities, bitter rivalries, and intense human dramas that enliven and illuminate the history of science."--Jacket The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed data that didn't support the case he was making. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity was only 'confirmed' in 1919 because an eminent British scientist massaged his figures. Joseph Lister's famously spotless hospital wards were actually notoriously dirty. Gregor Mendel, supposed father of the science of heredity, never grasped the fundamental principles of 'Mendelian' genetics. Often startling, always enthralling, FabulousScience reveals the truth behind these and many other myths in the history of science. - ;The great biologist Louis Pas This book explores the truth behind many of the famous stories about scientists and their famous experiments. The first section describes experiments by Pasteur, Millikan, Eddington and F.W Taylor. It describes how their preconceived notions and extraneous factors made them suppress and sometimes even manipulate data to support a cause that they had already decided on. The second part describes cases where reports of experiments and scientists by "science historians" were not faithful to the reality and how this distorted the picture that the later generations had of these people. The great biologist Louis Pasteur suppressed data that didn't support the case he was making. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity was only 'confirmed' in 1919 because an eminent British scientist massaged his figures. Joseph Lister's famously spotless hospital wards were actually notoriously dirty. Gregor Mendel, supposed father of the science of heredity, never grasped the fundamental principles of 'Mendelian' genetics. Often startling, always enthralling, Fabulous Science reveals the truth behind these and many other myths in the history of science A revealing study of the dark side of science explores the hypocrisies, lies, deceits, and incompetence that have sometimes accompanied the noble scientific pursuit of truth. (Science & Mathematics) John Waller. Published In The United States As: Einstein's Luck. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 296-301) And Index.