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Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe
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From Publishers Weekly
Astrophysicist and award-winning author Livio (The Golden Ratio) analyzes ruinous errors of five great scientific minds in the wake of their most prominent discoveries and how those errors have not only propelled scientific breakthroughs, but provide "insights...into the operation of the human mind." Summoning Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein, Livio argues there is no progress without lessons in humility. These thinkers succumbed to moments of fear, pride, stubbornness, and doubt common to all "mere mortals"—to the benefit of elucidating the evolution of life and the universe. Two-time Nobel prize-winning chemist Pauling's flub of basic chemistry catalyzed the discoveries of Watson and Crick; Hoyle, a cosmologist who displayed "pigheaded, almost infuriating refusal" to give up his thoroughly refuted "steady state theory", energized advanced studies of how we exist in space with his controversial ideas; and Einstein, "the embodiment of genius", refused to give up on his cosmological constant, "the most famous fudge factor in the history of science." With humor and precision, Livio reminds us: "Even the most impressive minds are not flawless; they merely pave the way for the next level of understanding." (May)
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Review
“Mario Livio sets the discoveries of five great scientists who were also remarkable personalities in their social context, showing how they emerged from confusion and controversy. His archival research allows him to debunk several myths that have been given currency through less thorough biographies. You don’t need to be a scientist to be fascinated by this scholarly, insightful and beautifully written book.” (Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and author of From Here to Infinity: A Vision for the Future of Science)“After reading Livio's account, I look on the history of science in a new way. In every century and every science, I see brilliant blunders.” (Freeman Dyson The New York Review of Books)"Scientists make mistakes all the time, but those bumps in the road are often smoothed out in the legends that surround the greatest discoverers. . . . Thoughtful, well-researched and beautifully written, Brilliant Blunders offers a distinctive — and far more truthful — perspective on the journey to scientific discovery." (Marcia Bartusiak The Washington Post)“Enlightening. . . . For many people, being a great scientist means being above error. . . . Livio’s book is a valuable antidote to this skewed picture. . . . Thanks to his deep curiosity, Livio turns Brilliant Blunders into a thoughtful meditation on the course of science itself." (Carl Zimmer The New York Times Book Review)"Elegant, entertaining, and instructive." (Andrew Robinson The Lancet)“It is said that genius is the ability to make all possible mistakes in the least amount of time. Livio’s genius is to show us just how much those mistakes have taught us.” (Adam Riess, Thomas Barber Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Nobel Laureate in Physics 2011)“Taking risks is part of genius, and genius is not immune to bloopers. Mario Livio's Brilliant Blunders leads us through the circumstances that surrounded famous gaffes. . . . Mr. Livio helps us see that such spectacular errors are opportunities rather than setbacks.” (Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health)“Mario Livio wears many hats: scientist, sleuth, storyteller. In Brilliant Blunders, a delightful intellectual synthesis, he reminds us that he’s also one of the best science writers in our galaxy.” (Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics, Cornell University, and author of The Joy of X)“In Brilliant Blunders, Mario Livio leaves no historical detail untold, as we re-walk the error-filled pathways along which human understanding of the universe slowly emerged.” (Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History, and author of Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier)Mr. Livio is a gifted storyteller. . . .[He] shows how science works partly by feeding on past mistakes: Once recognized, the errors sparked creativity in other scientists. An incorrect view of the world is not simply a mistake; it's a catalyst that leads to better understanding." (Samuel Arbesman The Wall Street Journal)
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Product details
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 14, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439192367
ISBN-13: 978-1439192368
Product Dimensions:
6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
166 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#253,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is a fascinating subject. Anyone who ventures into scientific research should be aware that, no matter how brilliant an idea is, there is always the danger that some or all of it may be totally wrong. I especially found the section about Fred Hoyle interesting. Livio states that Hoyle " was not religious" and therefore felt that the Steady State theory was the only one that allowed the necessary time for evolution to produce life and eventually intelligence. I wonder if Livio is familiar with a book Hoyle wrote in 1983 called "The Intelligent Universe"? In this book, he proposes that there is an intelligence beyond Earth that controls evolution of life throughout the Universe, and states that he now believes that this superior intelligence is responsible for our own intelligence. In a sense, he no longer considers himself an atheist. He rejects Darwinism ( providing convincing mathematical reasoning to show why natural selection is impossible) and believes that we will never contact extraterrestrial life forms, because the Universe is specifically designed to prevent this possibility. He argues that life comes from organic molecules found in nebulae. He still insists that Steady State is correct, however, and presents arguments to support it. One can appreciate the thinking of the great scientific minds and admire their courage in proposing theories that contradict established thought. It is inevitable that some of these bold ideas turn out to contain blunders, as they are working at the frontiers of knowledge where there are many unknowns.The book gives credit to the scientists for the many brilliant contributions they made, while pointing out that they were still fallible, like all of us.
Excellent book that explains the science clearly for a non-science audience. The stories are interesting and well argued as to why the blunders are considered "brilliant". A fun read. I found it useful to have others read the book that are exposed to (and believe) misrepresentations of the concepts described in the book.
Mr. Livio has written very readable books on math and science in the past; however, this book on "colossal mistakes by great scientists that changed our understanding of the universe" may be the best of what he's written so far. There is a joy and verve in his writing here that is beyond what he's done before. This makes for a book that is not only interesting but also a pleasure to read.Granted, he's chosen a particularly good topic: mistakes made by huge names in science--Darwin, Kelvin, Pauling, Hoyle, and Einstein. He handles it in an atypical way, however. Instead of using their well-known "blunders" to find a backdoor into criticism of these men as others have done in the past, Mr. Livio shows how the mistakes of great scientists often make perfect sense. In addition, he shows how these mistakes often open the door for others to make important breakthroughs.Consider Kelvin, often the poster child in scientific circles for someone who achieves much in his youth but then becomes hardened into his positions in old age even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Kelvin believed that the age of the earth could be no more than a few million years despite the fact that geological and evolutionary data during his lifetime indicated that the earth had to be much, much older. But what people often fail to understand about Kelvin is that he based his belief on thermodynamic calculations, calculations on which he was the acknowledged expert. More subtly, those people who threw the evidence of geology and biology and newly discovered radioactivity in his face often did not understand that even if their evidence spoke about the age of the earth, no known mechanism could account for the age of the sun which Kelvin had also calculated to be only a few millions years. In fact, it would be many decades before nuclear fusion would be understood well enough to determine that the age of the sun could also be billions of years and synch up with the assumed age of the earth. Kelvin based his mistake on calculable physics and, mistake though it may have been and intransigent as he certainly was, it encouraged other scientists to do significant work to refute him.Livio makes similar work of Darwin's understanding of inheritable traits, Pauling's work on the structure of DNA, Hoyle's refutation of the Big Bang, and Einstein's cosmological constant. He structures his book well, delivering a chapter on outlining the mistake (what it was and how a great mind could make such a mistake) and then following with a chapter that examines the impact of the mistake on the development of science.Livio also deserves credit for looking into primary sources to examine aspects of controversy about these so-called mistakes. In particular, he has a great section on the primacy debate on what is now known as Hubble's Law between Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaitre. In addition, he quite convincingly argues that Einstein never called the cosmological constant his "greatest blunder". In fact, that is a story most of us know third-hand through a not-quite-reliable source.Because of its triumphs, many people look upon science as some kind of edifice of truth. Those involved in science, however, know that the power of science comes from its ability to advance by correcting mistakes and refining understanding. Because of that, the history of science is riddled with blind alleys and big blunders. Those things happen to be just as important to the development of science as what is currently accepted as accurate. Mr. Livio has done an excellent job of demonstrating this by pointing out the mistakes made by some of the greats. This is a book anyone interested in the history of science should read.
This book is written at a very satisfying level. It falls between the pop culture level of writing such as Malcolm Gladwell's and the senior year university textbook. Not to say those writings aren't important but this book falls nicely between--advanced concepts explained in enough detail that will call for focused attention from an adult mind. You will need to concentrate and even then you may miss a point or two. But if you have any scientific curiosity you will find yourself stimulated and with a deeper understanding of the universe. You'll want to read it again later.
Livio shows the importance of collaboration of others in solving scientific inquiries, and how ego may get into the way of great discoveries through ignorance of other outside observations as it did with Kelvin, Houle and Pauling, or in the case of Einstein humility in believing his math actually explains many cosmological phenomena, or in the case of Darwin, where ignorance was bliss in his theory of evolution. He does a good job of explaining into laymen's terms the thought processes of each proposed hypothesis of these five brilliant scientists although the physics that explains Houle's and Einstein's blunders can become difficult to follow if one lacks a background in physics. As a science teacher I found it to be a good resource in helping understand many of the accepted discoveries of how the earth and the universe were formed and aged.
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