readhikerepeat's review against another edition
4.0
From The Book Wheel:
When I first picked up this book I immediately went to Goodreads to see what other people thought. One of the biggest complaints is that it was too “sciency” or technical, which baffled me because it’s about science going wrong. That’s right – science. Of course it is going to have some scientific jargon! A chapter about hurricanes would be incomplete without a mention of the Coriolis effect, so I didn’t factor these complaints into my decision to read it. But while most of the scientific sections were about things I learned in high school, there were parts of the book that were really heavy on the technical terms. To be fair, they were necessary to understanding how and why things went wrong, but I did find myself skimming over the chapters about engineering and chemistry.
Not that that detracted from the book whatsoever. In the end, morbid curiosity and extremely approachable writing by Simon LeVay propelled me through the book. If you had asked me a week ago whether I thought human experiments were actually happening with catastrophic implications, I would have said no. Between the FDA, the review boards, and the internet, there couldn’t possibly be genetic testing that resulted in an ear bone growing in someone’s brain or blatantly ignoring FDA regulations, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
For the full review, including the Top 5 Lessons I learned,click here.
When I first picked up this book I immediately went to Goodreads to see what other people thought. One of the biggest complaints is that it was too “sciency” or technical, which baffled me because it’s about science going wrong. That’s right – science. Of course it is going to have some scientific jargon! A chapter about hurricanes would be incomplete without a mention of the Coriolis effect, so I didn’t factor these complaints into my decision to read it. But while most of the scientific sections were about things I learned in high school, there were parts of the book that were really heavy on the technical terms. To be fair, they were necessary to understanding how and why things went wrong, but I did find myself skimming over the chapters about engineering and chemistry.
Not that that detracted from the book whatsoever. In the end, morbid curiosity and extremely approachable writing by Simon LeVay propelled me through the book. If you had asked me a week ago whether I thought human experiments were actually happening with catastrophic implications, I would have said no. Between the FDA, the review boards, and the internet, there couldn’t possibly be genetic testing that resulted in an ear bone growing in someone’s brain or blatantly ignoring FDA regulations, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
For the full review, including the Top 5 Lessons I learned,click here.
smellbelle's review
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's everything you want from a lay person's science novel. A romp through some infamous and obscure science screw ups. The main thing though, is unlike many other novels of its type, it's done respectfully. LeVay, a scientist himself, does not take this novel as an opportunity to badmouth, criticise or humiliate his scientific colleagues. If it is schadenfreude that you're looking for, you'll not find it here.
LeVay covers these often truly tragic mishaps with a sense of poise and and accuracy and a thorough reporting of the facts.
My absolute favourite part of this though, is that it gives you just enough information, context and intrigue to want to go and find out more. Since finishing it, I've found a couple of interesting documentaries on a couple of the subjects, and that's always an added bonus.
Definitely a wonderful use of a spare couple of days that will leave you with further obscure and interesting facts to liven up a dinner party, or perhaps that winning edge at trivial pursuit.
LeVay covers these often truly tragic mishaps with a sense of poise and and accuracy and a thorough reporting of the facts.
My absolute favourite part of this though, is that it gives you just enough information, context and intrigue to want to go and find out more. Since finishing it, I've found a couple of interesting documentaries on a couple of the subjects, and that's always an added bonus.
Definitely a wonderful use of a spare couple of days that will leave you with further obscure and interesting facts to liven up a dinner party, or perhaps that winning edge at trivial pursuit.
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