Sometimes clumsily written, but an interesting look at the human element in science.
A solid account of some memorable squabbles reminds readers that scientists are as prone to turf wars and ego trips as any other mortals.
British author White, whose credits include biographies of Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, begins with a quick overview of early scientific controversies, in particular the conflict between astronomers and the Catholic Church. He then examines eight particular rivalries. Newton, who quarreled with anyone who questioned his preeminence, saved his greatest venom for Leibnitz, who seems to have discovered calculus at almost the same time as his English rival. In the long run, Leibnitz’s clearer notation became the standard. The chemists Lavoisier and Priestly backed rival theories of combustion. Priestly actually discovered oxygen, but insisted on interpreting it in terms of the outmoded phlogiston theory. It was the Frenchman’s broader (and ultimately, correct) theories that led to the development of chemistry as an exact science. Similarly, Darwin’s opponents, most of whom opposed evolution on religious rather than scientific grounds, lost the argument mainly because their theoretical position was in effect a dead end for the biological sciences. Sometimes being right isn’t enough; Tesla won his argument (as hotly contested as any) with Edison over the choice between alternating and direct current for distribution of electricity, but his complete lack of worldly acumen made him a marginal figure. In modern times, White also looks at the races to build the nuclear bomb and to find the structure of DNA, as well as the ongoing commercial competition between Bill Gates and his rivals. In each case, he looks on the bright side, making the argument that competition spurs progress and forces the scientists involved to work at their best.
Sometimes clumsily written, but an interesting look at the human element in science.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-380-97754-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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