Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology

by Oren Harman (Editor), William Dritschilo (Contributor), Bruce Weber (Contributor)

This book is the first devoted to modern biology’s innovators and iconoclasts: men and women who challenged prevailing notions in their fields. Some of these scientists were Nobel Prize winners, some were considered cranks or gadflies, some were in fact wrong. The stories of these stubborn dissenters are individually fascinating. Taken together, they provide unparalleled insights into the role of dissent and controversy in science and especially the growth of biological thought over the past century.

 

Each of the book’s nineteen specially commissioned chapters offers a detailed portrait of the intellectual rebellion of a particular scientist working in a major area of biology--genetics, evolution, embryology, ecology, biochemistry, neurobiology, and virology as well as others. An introduction by the volume’s editors and an epilogue by R. C. Lewontin draw connections among the case studies and illuminate the nonconforming scientist’s crucial function of disturbing the comfort of those in the majority. By focusing on the dynamics and impact of dissent rather than on “winners” who are credited with scientific advances, the book presents a refreshingly original perspective on the history of the life sciences.

 

Scientists featured in this volume:

Alfred Russel Wallace 

Hans Driesch

Wilhelm Johannsen

Raymond Arthur Dart

C. D. Darlington

Richard Goldschmidt

Barbara McClintock

Oswald T. Avery

Roger Sperry

Leon Croizat

Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards

Peter Mitchell

Howard Temin

Motoo Kimura

William D. Hamilton

Carl Woese

Stephen Jay Gould

Thelma Rowell

Daniel S. Simberloff

Genres: Biology, Science, Biography, History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Oren Harman, who has a doctorate from Oxford University, is the Chair of the Graduate Program in Science Technology and Society at Bar Ilan University and a professor of the history of science. He is the author of The Man Who Invented the Chromosome, a documentary film maker, and a frequent contributor to The New Republic. He lives in Tel Aviv and New York.

Reviews

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting structure: Each author writes one chapter about a past biologist who struggled with the "general" mainstream or who had a theory that was a little bit off mainstream.

Thee writing of authors differed profoundly, some of the chapters are a tad dry, with words more complicated than they have to be, but all in all I learned a LOT about the history of biology. The chapters are (I think) roughly ordered chronologically, and only by the end had I actually heard about the people the chapters were about (with exception of Wallace).

I guess this makes the latter chapters more enjoyable, as we can remember the some of the controversies surrounding these characters: Gould's , for example, who is still one of my favourite biologists.

A word of caution: Do not read this book in bed, you will fall asleep!

Recommended for: Those interested in how "scientific knowledge" and especially the status quo are developed. Biologists.