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When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales From The Dark Side Of Discovery (2008)

by Simon LeVay(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0452289327 (ISBN13: 9780452289321)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Plume

review 1: I think a better title for this book would have been "When Scientists Go Wrong." Each of the twelve horror stories presented were directly caused by the laziness/hubris/ambition of the people behind the projects. I admit to skimming and skipping around through a lot of this book. Although I tried hard, I'm just not interested in the failed mathematics behind an industrial engineering catastrophe. It didn't help that LeVay seemed to write with the assumption that his readers were experts in a great many subjects, not bothering to keep things simple for the laymen.
review 2: This is an odd little book, in part because it doesn't really seem to have much of a point. It's not anti-science, nor does it really make much attempt to delve into the lessons learned from ... moreeach of the twelve mistakes described in its stories. When things go horribly wrong, it can make for an entertaining story, and LeVay does a good job describing these stories. But it never really rises above grim fascination, and at the end of the book it seems a bit lurid to have enjoyed it. less

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