WITH A LITTLE LUCK

Developing the theme that paying attention can lead to sometimes revolutionary discoveries, Fradin presents 11 case studies in serendipity, from fossil-hunter Mary Anning and Newton’s apple to Jocelyn Bell’s discovery of pulsars. He not only writes clearly and forcefully, but brings uncommon authority to several of his profiles. He interviewed or corresponded with not only Bell, but Clyde Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto), a surviving son of Maria Sanz de Santuola, who as a child found the cave paintings at Altamira and a scholar familiar with Muhammad Ahmed el-Hamed, the Palestinian who as a lad found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The author rightly notes at the outset that preparation and particular traits of character, such as innate stubbornness or strong curiosity, played roles at least as vital as luck did in each discovery—but he urges readers to follow the advice of Dr. Alex Wolszczan (first extra-solar planets): “Keep your eyes wide open for something unusual at all times.” Not bad advice. An exhilarating companion for the likes of Charlotte Jones’s Mistakes That Worked (1991). (photos, source notes) (Nonfiction. 11-13)