Fabulous Science: Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery

Waller J.

“Fabulous Science reveals many of these findings to the general reader for the first time. Often startling and always enthralling, they show that some of our most important scientific theories were initially accepted only because famous scientists fudged data, pulled rank, or were propped up by religious and political elites. Striking case-studies show that science is not always driven on by pure rationality: human factors can play at least as big a role in the origin and reception of scientific ideas. Even poorly attested theories can gain widespread acceptance if put forward by scientists with sufficient clout. Fabulous Science restores to the history of science its complex personalities, bitter rivalries, and intense human dramas which until recently have been overlain by myths and misconceptions.