In his book Brilliant Blunders, Mario Livio offers a detailed and fascinating examination of major errors made by five great scientists-Charles Darwin, Linus Pauling, Lord Kelvin, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein-as they sought to understand the evolution of life on Earth, the evolution of the Earth itself and the evolution of the universe as a whole. The stories of how these blunders came about, and what happened next, are extremely well researched, and they shed a welcome, informative, entertaining and sometimes new light on science as a deeply human activity. They also pass my private test-that non-scientific friends and relatives should be able to read and enjoy them-with flying colours.
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