Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe

Mr. Livio has written very readable books on math and science in the past; however, this book on "colossal mistakes by great scientists that changed our understanding of the universe" may be the best of what he's written so far. There is a joy and verve in his writing here that is beyond what he's done before. This makes for a book that is not only interesting but also a pleasure to read.Granted, he's chosen a particularly good topic: mistakes made by huge names in science--Darwin, Kelvin, Pauling, Hoyle, and Einstein. He handles it in an atypical way, however. Instead of using their well-known "blunders" to find a backdoor into criticism of these men as others have done in the past, Mr. Livio shows how the mistakes of great scientists often make perfect sense. In addition, he shows how these mistakes often open the door for others to make important breakthroughs.Consider Kelvin, often the poster child in scientific circles for someone who achieves much in his youth but then becomes hardened into his positions in old age even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Kelvin believed that the age of the earth could be no more than a few million years despite the fact that geological and evolutionary data during his lifetime indicated that the earth had to be much, much older. But what people often fail to understand about Kelvin is that he based his belief on thermodynamic calculations, calculations on which he was the acknowledged expert. More subtly, those people who threw the evidence of geology and biology and newly discovered radioactivity in his face often did not understand that even if their evidence spoke about the age of the earth, no known mechanism could account for the age of the sun which Kelvin had also calculated to be only a few millions years. In fact, it would be many decades before nuclear fusion would be understood well enough to determine that the age of the sun could also be billions of years and synch up with the assumed age of the earth. Kelvin based his mistake on calculable physics and, mistake though it may have been and intransigent as he certainly was, it encouraged other scientists to do significant work to refute him.Livio makes similar work of Darwin's understanding of inheritable traits, Pauling's work on the structure of DNA, Hoyle's refutation of the Big Bang, and Einstein's cosmological constant. He structures his book well, delivering a chapter on outlining the mistake (what it was and how a great mind could make such a mistake) and then following with a chapter that examines the impact of the mistake on the development of science.Livio also deserves credit for looking into primary sources to examine aspects of controversy about these so-called mistakes. In particular, he has a great section on the primacy debate on what is now known as Hubble's Law between Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaitre. In addition, he quite convincingly argues that Einstein never called the cosmological constant his "greatest blunder". In fact, that is a story most of us know third-hand through a not-quite-reliable source.Because of its triumphs, many people look upon science as some kind of edifice of truth. Those involved in science, however, know that the power of science comes from its ability to advance by correcting mistakes and refining understanding. Because of that, the history of science is riddled with blind alleys and big blunders. Those things happen to be just as important to the development of science as what is currently accepted as accurate. Mr. Livio has done an excellent job of demonstrating this by pointing out the mistakes made by some of the greats. This is a book anyone interested in the history of science should read.

If you are looking to laugh at the stupid mistakes made by some brilliant scientists you have come to the wrong place. But if you want to explore the history of modern science and get some insight into the thought processes of brilliant scientists you have reached your destination.Livio does talk about some ideas that were strongly supported by Darwin, Hoyle, Einstein, Pauling,and more. And he clearly differentiates between errors that were based on inability to test due to lack of advanced equipment from those that were due to "human psycological limitations." Only the latter are termed blunders in this context.But all of that is really as aside to this book. What it really does is explore the minds of great scientists and put them in the context of their time. You get a glimpse of how their famous theories developed, the principles and people whose prior work formed the basis of those theories, the work that followed that revealed the errors - or sometimes correctness. And you get a good look at the personalities of these scientists and their contemporaries.Along the way you just might learn, or get a refresher on, modern scientific principals. Livio doesn't ever talk down to his readers. He always explains these principals as though he knows you are well versed and is just trying to put things into context. But even for readers who have not delved deeply into these subjects his way of explaining is very accessible.The only time the book falls a little flat is when Livio introduces a bit of "pop" culture into the writing. This happens maybe once per chapter, and it always falls a little flat and feels forced. I grinned at the effort more than the actual joke. These are really only throw-away references so they won't diminish your enjoyment of the book at all.I would not be surprised to find this book make its way into university science curricula as the main text for a "History of Science" course. It is certainly a lot better than the text I used some 40 years ago when I actually had to take a course with that title.

Brilliant blunders? How can blunders be brilliant? Well they sometimes can if they are made by scientists of the calibre of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, or even lesser geniuses such as Linus Pauling and Lord Kelvin. The blunder itself can act as a catalyst and open up entirely new ways of looking at nature. In this book, the astrophysicist Mario Livio illustrates this by examining the cases of five iconic scientists from different disciplines - Darwin, Kelvin, Pauling, Einstein and Hoyle - whose work has transcended science and extended out to general culture. The nature of their blunders is different in each case and illustrates some universal human traits. They demonstrate that the road to discovery and innovation can be constructed even via the unlikely path of blunders.Darwin's blunder was not to realise that his theory of evolution was incompatible with the blending theory of heredity that was accepted at the time. This implied that any variation with new characteristics that arose by chance would quickly be lost. His attempts to overcome this problem were misguided and he fell victim to what modern psychologists call the `illusion of confidence', i.e. overestimating ones abilities. Nevertheless, the blunder paved the way for the mathematical theory of population genetics and the vindication of Mendel's theory of inheritance. Kelvin calculated the age of the Earth to be far smaller than the evidence from geology suggested, not because he knew nothing about radioactivity (which actually makes rather little difference to the result), but because he refused to accept that there could be convection currents from the Earth's core. His stubbornness stemmed from his knowledge that his mathematical abilities were undeniable and so he had total faith in his calculations. Pauling's attempt to solve the structure of DNA resulted in a model that violated some basic principle of chemistry that even a first year undergraduate would have known. How could this possibly have happened? Well, Pauling consider himself in a race with teams in Cambridge and London and it is likely that in his haste to rush something into print he totally lost focus, relying instead on his previous success with models of proteins. His blunder spurred on the efforts of the other teams, particularly that of Crick and Watson. Hoyle was one of the originators of the `steady-state' theory of the universe, in contrast to the Big Bang model. He was still defending this theory long after observational evidence had destroyed its credence. One reason for this may have been his isolation; he only worked with and had discussions with a close circle of friends. Einstein's blunder was to introduce a new term - the cosmological constant - into the equations of general relativity to counteract gravity and so produce a static universe, only to remove it when the universe was found not to be static, but actually expanding. This blunder has led to exhaustive studies of the equations of general relativity and cosmological models, and the reinstatement of the cosmological constant in another context.This is a hugely entertaining and informative book constructed on rigorous research For example, by examining the Minute books of the Royal Astronomical Society, Livio definitively lays to rest the suggestion sometimes made that the discoverer of the expansion of the universe was Lemaitre and not Hubble. Another example is the famous, much quoted remark allegedly made by Einstein that the introduction of the cosmological constant was his `biggest blunder'. By examining all the relevant documents, the author shows that there is no evidence for this assertion, but considerable circumstantial evidence that it was made up by George Gamow, a physicist renowned for his sense of humour. The writing is informal but very clear, and difficult concepts are precisely explained without `dumbing down'. The text is backed up by numerous references and a bibliography for those readers who wish to explore further.

Shame the front cover is damaged.

You will find lots of historical facts about great scientists.

This is an insightful book commenting on "blunders" by some of the greatest minds of the last 2 centuries —Darwin & Kelvin (19th); Einstein, Pauling, & Hoyle (20th).Mario Livio makes an excellent investigation into the nature of each of their mistakes, with some interesting conclusions. He brings some original ideas about what constitutes a scientific "mistake", and especially the psychological reasons for these mistakes. I liked how they were arranged in decreasing order of severity — starting with Darwin's misunderstanding of a serious concept of his own theory and ending with Einstein's cosmological constant.I'd recommend this book to those interested in the history of science, or in the psychology of some of the greatest scientists. Cheers!

Let me first say that I am a scientist, better a physicist. Thus, the topics were known to me as to the physical foundations. However, this book sheds some light on a few hidden corners of the scientific discoveries of Darwin, Newton, Kelvin, Pauling, Hoyle and Einstein that were basically unknown to me. It is not a book on the history of science, it is rather a book on the process of unveiling the secrets of the universe and the errors that the scientist, after all a human being, makes and sometimes is not ready to admit. In this sense, it is a brilliant book, written by someone who understands science and has compassion for the scientists as humans. A second thing that made me happy about this book is its unified view of physics and biology: they are related sciences, we know, but the author tells us why. I had never thought that without the universe the way it is we would never be talking about some fundamental problems the way we do. It sounds trivial, but, believe me, it is not. Read this book and you will find out what I mean!