Free Radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science
By Michael Brooks
Short Stories from Modern Science
Michael Brooks, who holds a PhD in quantum physics from the University of Sussex, is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He is a consultant at New Scientist
Visit the Free Radicals 2011-12 blog
Brooks asks an impertinent question: is science really as dull as most people seem to think?
The answer, it turns out, is a resounding no...
AND TWO reviews:
the Independent one here
These days science is either nothing or it's the new religion. But, as both these books show in their different ways, the practice of science inhabits the broad territory between these extremes and exhibits the full Monty of human behaviour. Science is the most reliable form of knowledge we have but it is arrived at by unreliable means. Cutting-edge research deals with the unknown unknowns, as the unwitting philosopher of science Donald Rumsfeld put it, and there is no formula or methodology for achieving that.Michael Brooks is the canniest science writer currently plying his trade. Whereas others merely translate the discoveries of science into hopefully understandable language, Brooks writes, above all, with attitude. (...)
In Free Radicals, every case history involves scientists succeeding by breaking the rules by which people imagine science to be bound. Brooks characterises the scientific process as anarchy, stressing the wildness of some scientists, their drug-taking, their vicious rivalries, their sometimes economy with the evidence. This may seem a bit over-the-top but it is a welcome corrective to the dutiful obeisance science sometimes evokes.
READ about Werner Forssmann: a pioneer of cardiology. ...
Forssmann's self-experiment pushed the boundaries of medicine into a new era and opened the door of modern cardiology.
This historical study depicts Forssmann's life narrative and the forces, political and personal as well, that shaped his personality. His upbringing in Berlin, his career as a physician, the self-experiment, and his life forward.
after reading little passage below.
- Tuskegee syphylis study (1932-72) page (117)
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