This is a splendid collection of 181 tales of the heroic, the
fortuitous, the bold and the weird among the happenings and
personalities in the history of science. It includes funeral
orations, strange experiments and tolerant spouses (one wife
willingly accompanied her husband downstairs in the middle of the
night to demonstrate tortoise footprints in flour paste), plus
absent-minded scientists galore, several huge doses of luck, some
almighty cock-ups and quite a lot of explosions. Many people know
the story of how Kekule literally dreamed up the chemical structure
of benzene; perhaps fewer will have heard how physicist Neils Bohr,
playing goalie for his local club, nearly let the ball through
while carrying out calculations on the goalpost. It is intriguing
to discover that Lord Kelvin initially believed Roentgen's paper
first describing the use of X-rays was a hoax, or that Robert Boyle
was a keen alchemist who searched for the 'philosopher's stone'
that might turn base metals to gold. The author is a professor at
King's College London whose speciality is the molecular mechanics
of cell function, and who has written both books and book reviews.
He has a smooth turn of phrase ('to leave bottles of laboratory
preparations unlabelled is an offence against the deities of
research'), pulls no punches (Newton is described as 'sour and
ungenerous') and has clearly done his research well (although it is
curious that he describes aspartame as having 'no pathological
side-effects', a conclusion with which sufferers from the metabolic
disease PKU might quibble). This is a well-chosen and intriguing
collection, although as with all anthologies it's slightly
difficult to know what it's for - a present for the scientist in
your life? A book for laboratory technicians to keep by the loo? An
aid for science writers looking for an intriguing snippet to add
colour to their piece (there is an excellent index of names for the
purpose)? Whatever, if you know someone who might like such a
thing, they'll be well pleased with this one. (Kirkus UK)
A collection of fascinating stories, entertainingly told, showing the human face of science. Eurekas and Euphorias contains around 200 anecdotes brilliantly illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and the intolerant, recluses and arrivistes. Told with wit and relish by Walter Gratzer, here are stories to delight, astonish, instruct, and most especially, entertain the general reader, scientist and non-scientist alike.
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