Much has been made of the slowness of the scientific community to accept new theories (evolution, relativity); Sabbagh...
A thorough investigation (first published in Britain in 1999) into a case of deviant science from the 1930s and 1940s.
For many years, the papers of John Heslop Harrison (a botanist working on the Isle of Rum off the coast of Scotland) have astounded naturalists with observations of plants never before seen in Great Britain. His findings, if accurate, would have major theoretical implications, supporting his theory that parts of Scotland were not encased in ice during the last Ice Age (thus allowing plants to survive that would have perished in adjacent locales). But as Harrison’s list of unlikely discoveries grew, so did his colleagues’ doubts—and in 1948 John Raven (a classics scholar with a botanical background) was recruited to investigate them. Sabbagh (Skyscraper, 1990) has succeeded in bringing this decades-old academic controversy to life, but his academic writing style sometimes slows the story down. As the tale unfolds, it becomes clear to both Raven and the reader that Harrison’s “finds” were actually planted. Raven published a letter in Nature, alerting the scientific community to many of the discoveries from the island that seemed problematic, and essentially no further action was taken against Harrison. Over the years, as researchers were unable to verify Harrison’s sightings, they were dropped from the record books. Sabbagh’s conclusions are sometimes a stretch (for example, he asserts that the scientific community failed, in that nothing was done to publicly expose Harrison), while the letters he draws from show a community deeply concerned with both professional and personal fairness. Generally, though, he has a clear grasp of the significance of his story, placing it in context of examples of more recent—and equally audacious—fraud.
Much has been made of the slowness of the scientific community to accept new theories (evolution, relativity); Sabbagh offers an illuminating, if not always engaging, account of the virtues of such skepticism. (photos)Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-374-25282-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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