hudsone45's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly between a 2 and 3. Was it well written? For the most part. Do I agree what comes out of his mouth? Most part no.
I wouldn't mind a follow up to see how his opinion has changed since the 90s.
I wouldn't mind a follow up to see how his opinion has changed since the 90s.
jhereg's review against another edition
2.0
Somewhat winding book with little point by an ego-inflated nobel prize winner. Chapters are self-contained, so it is sort of a book of essays. Some of them attempt to be "otherworldly" re: mind-reading. I wasn't impressed.
megan_by_force's review against another edition
2.0
Flaming fucking troll shit. The first few chapters are good because we are actually talking about science and this incredible thing that changed so much in laboratory testing.
Then we move on to the flaming troll shit.
Hi, I'm Kary Mullis and I don't believe in global warming or that AIDS is caused by HIV because there's no scientific evidence to support that. But I DO believe in aliens, astrology, and astral projection because I'm a dumbass that likes LSD and inadvertently mixed a benadryl with laughing gas one day and froze my face off. And then one time I got bitten by a bunch of brown recluse spiders, got a massive staph infection and refused antibiotics because I was too high on vicodin to use my brain!
But I'm a scientist.
Jesus christ.
I don't care if Kary Mullis is 80 years old or lives to be 1000, if I ever meet him, I will Gibbs smack him into the next millennium.
Then we move on to the flaming troll shit.
Hi, I'm Kary Mullis and I don't believe in global warming or that AIDS is caused by HIV because there's no scientific evidence to support that. But I DO believe in aliens, astrology, and astral projection because I'm a dumbass that likes LSD and inadvertently mixed a benadryl with laughing gas one day and froze my face off. And then one time I got bitten by a bunch of brown recluse spiders, got a massive staph infection and refused antibiotics because I was too high on vicodin to use my brain!
But I'm a scientist.
Jesus christ.
I don't care if Kary Mullis is 80 years old or lives to be 1000, if I ever meet him, I will Gibbs smack him into the next millennium.
kirshark's review against another edition
4.0
I don't agree with all of his opinions and premises, but the entirety is an enjoyable and worthwhile read, and his independence is welcome in a sector in which too many seek consensus when they should be re-examining and testing each other.
nicki83930's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
4.0
he has a few stupid ideas near the end but overall good :)
greeniezona's review against another edition
4.0
(review originally written for Bookslut)
It is widely accepted in the scientific community that Kary Mullis is a kook. Which is a rather odd reaction to a man who has won a Nobel Prize in chemistry and who invented PCR, a tool that not many microbiologists or biochemists would happily live without. But I suppose that it's to be expected, as most press attention that Kary Mullis receives is not centered around his scientific achievements, but rather around his passion for surfing, his past use of LSD, and his reputation for chasing women.
So a book by Kary Mullis is bound to be more interesting than the average book of essays written by a chemist. And oh, is it. To sum up: Mullis believes in astrology, traveling through the astral plane, recreational use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, and glowing raccoons that talk. He doesn't believe in global warming, the advice of nutritionists, or the fact that HIV causes AIDS. To put it mildly, the theories and opinions expressed in his book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, are controversial.
They are also terribly fascinating. Amongst the many things that Kary Mullis is, he is also an excellent story teller. I ended up reading at least 80% of this book aloud to my husband. It would start out, "Oh, you have to hear this!", and then I would inevitably back up and read him the whole chapter. In this book, Mullis meets the empress of Japan and calls her "sweetie," nearly kills himself with nitrous oxide, is bitten by several brown recluses back when the only known treatment was surgery, speaks to a glowing raccoon in the forest, accidentally causes an explosion during a science demonstration, and also accidentally makes tear gas in a friend's garage the summer after they graduated from high school. He has no shortage of interesting stories to tell, and he tells them well.
He's also very persuasive. I read the chapter on astrology and was ready to go out and buy an astrological chart. I read the chapter on appropriate use of scientific funding and inquiry and was ready to write a letter to my congressman, asking him to defund the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) in favor of funding the search for near-Earth asteroids that could collide with our planet. (This is especially significant because I spent two years working on projects related to RHIC while pursuing my masters degree, and actually have two friends employed at RHIC right now.) Of course, most of these conversions were short-lived, and on some issues he never had much of a chance of convincing me (in fact I think it's dangerous to assert that human beings could not possibly alter the climate), but some of his arguments linger. For instance, there is a disturbing lack of scientific evidence supporting the claim that the HIV virus causes AIDS. It sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory at first to doubt something that we've all taken for granted for so long, but if it were true, why aren't there articles in peer-reviewed journals offering evidence to that end?
Kary Mullis can mess with your mind just as effectively as a dose of LSD. So if you read this book, read it with a healthy dose of scientific skepticism. As Mullis himself points out, just because something is published (and even in a scientific journal), that doesn't make it so. And just because the man won a Nobel prize, that doesn't mean he's an expert on every topic he discusses. But read this book because it's fun.
I promise it will make you laugh. And shake your head in disbelief. The only thing it won't do is bore you.
It is widely accepted in the scientific community that Kary Mullis is a kook. Which is a rather odd reaction to a man who has won a Nobel Prize in chemistry and who invented PCR, a tool that not many microbiologists or biochemists would happily live without. But I suppose that it's to be expected, as most press attention that Kary Mullis receives is not centered around his scientific achievements, but rather around his passion for surfing, his past use of LSD, and his reputation for chasing women.
So a book by Kary Mullis is bound to be more interesting than the average book of essays written by a chemist. And oh, is it. To sum up: Mullis believes in astrology, traveling through the astral plane, recreational use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, and glowing raccoons that talk. He doesn't believe in global warming, the advice of nutritionists, or the fact that HIV causes AIDS. To put it mildly, the theories and opinions expressed in his book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, are controversial.
They are also terribly fascinating. Amongst the many things that Kary Mullis is, he is also an excellent story teller. I ended up reading at least 80% of this book aloud to my husband. It would start out, "Oh, you have to hear this!", and then I would inevitably back up and read him the whole chapter. In this book, Mullis meets the empress of Japan and calls her "sweetie," nearly kills himself with nitrous oxide, is bitten by several brown recluses back when the only known treatment was surgery, speaks to a glowing raccoon in the forest, accidentally causes an explosion during a science demonstration, and also accidentally makes tear gas in a friend's garage the summer after they graduated from high school. He has no shortage of interesting stories to tell, and he tells them well.
He's also very persuasive. I read the chapter on astrology and was ready to go out and buy an astrological chart. I read the chapter on appropriate use of scientific funding and inquiry and was ready to write a letter to my congressman, asking him to defund the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) in favor of funding the search for near-Earth asteroids that could collide with our planet. (This is especially significant because I spent two years working on projects related to RHIC while pursuing my masters degree, and actually have two friends employed at RHIC right now.) Of course, most of these conversions were short-lived, and on some issues he never had much of a chance of convincing me (in fact I think it's dangerous to assert that human beings could not possibly alter the climate), but some of his arguments linger. For instance, there is a disturbing lack of scientific evidence supporting the claim that the HIV virus causes AIDS. It sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory at first to doubt something that we've all taken for granted for so long, but if it were true, why aren't there articles in peer-reviewed journals offering evidence to that end?
Kary Mullis can mess with your mind just as effectively as a dose of LSD. So if you read this book, read it with a healthy dose of scientific skepticism. As Mullis himself points out, just because something is published (and even in a scientific journal), that doesn't make it so. And just because the man won a Nobel prize, that doesn't mean he's an expert on every topic he discusses. But read this book because it's fun.
I promise it will make you laugh. And shake your head in disbelief. The only thing it won't do is bore you.
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
1.0
Hated it. A cretin, clearly in love with the idea of himself, spewing nonsense for page after page, trying to convince us how cool he is. And if it were merely nonsense about personal style, fine; but it is hateful, harmful nonsense from a Nobel laureate that could have caused a large number of preventable deaths.
Specifically, HIV is the root cause of AIDS; and safety protocols in biological labs do protect the workers and society at large. I'm probably forgetting a few. And as an aside -- surfing stopped being considered countercultural or subversive in the early 1980s, and that 60-pound longboard he's holding was really, really cool back in about 1968.
Mullis has no shame, but shame on you, Vintage, for electing to publish this crap. You should know better.
Specifically, HIV is the root cause of AIDS; and safety protocols in biological labs do protect the workers and society at large. I'm probably forgetting a few. And as an aside -- surfing stopped being considered countercultural or subversive in the early 1980s, and that 60-pound longboard he's holding was really, really cool back in about 1968.
Mullis has no shame, but shame on you, Vintage, for electing to publish this crap. You should know better.
blet's review against another edition
2.0
I thought I was supposed to like this book and agree with everything Mullis says since, you know, he's a Nobel Prize winner. I was wrong.
I was expecting it to be an autobiography, with tales of his adventures. In the first few chapter it is so, and they are delightful: tales of him winning the Nobel, meeting the Japanese Emperor and his childhood.
But then the book becomes a 200-page-long conscience flux. Because Mullins is such an eccentric character, his thoughts are still interesting, and certainly thought provoking.
He takes a lot of unconventional stances (such as not believing the existence of man-made climate change but believing in astrology and talking raccoons), but since he argues them passionately, it was fascinating to look into the mind of a "non-conforming" thinker. However, he often goes after the scientific community because of the "sheep-like thinking" of its members, which was unexpected and reveals his deep underlying God complex.
Reading this book did inspire me to look more critically at scientific claims but dude, chill, it's not you vs. the world.
Furthermore, at several points of the book I caught myself thinking "what the fuck am I reading?" and I finally made up my mind: Mullis is a brilliant biochemist but also a weird, weird man and it's not always worth it to listen to his rambling ideas.
I was expecting it to be an autobiography, with tales of his adventures. In the first few chapter it is so, and they are delightful: tales of him winning the Nobel, meeting the Japanese Emperor and his childhood.
But then the book becomes a 200-page-long conscience flux. Because Mullins is such an eccentric character, his thoughts are still interesting, and certainly thought provoking.
He takes a lot of unconventional stances (such as not believing the existence of man-made climate change but believing in astrology and talking raccoons), but since he argues them passionately, it was fascinating to look into the mind of a "non-conforming" thinker. However, he often goes after the scientific community because of the "sheep-like thinking" of its members, which was unexpected and reveals his deep underlying God complex.
Reading this book did inspire me to look more critically at scientific claims but dude, chill, it's not you vs. the world.
Furthermore, at several points of the book I caught myself thinking "what the fuck am I reading?" and I finally made up my mind: Mullis is a brilliant biochemist but also a weird, weird man and it's not always worth it to listen to his rambling ideas.
kate327's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting book in parts. The writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993 and the book was published in 1998. Some of the content is fascinating, but much is very dated and some is just plain weird. For example, the author mocks the link between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change, and the link between HIV and AIDS. He believes in astrology, writes a lot about his use of LSD and other drugs, once saw a glowing green raccoon while not under the influence, and believes he may have encountered aliens. There was too much information about his personal life, especially his opinions about women, some of which made my skin crawl. There was so much strangeness in this book, it was hard to focus on the interesting scientific bits that are still relevant.