SOLVED: A Collection of Short Biographies by the Same Writer [s]

[James]

Sometime around 12-17 years ago (I believe) I read a book and I've recently tried to remember the name of the author or book and can't.

The Author:
The author wrote (as I remember) a column for some magazine and these were some of the collected columns. Also, as best I can remember, he had a Jewish surname... though I may be misremembering.

The Book:
It was a trade paperback collection of small biographies of historical scientists. What I specifically appreciated was the author's ability to treat historical geniuses as geniuses, even when they turned out completely wrong. So some of his subjects were more obscure then the norm.
.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Was the magazine a science magazine, a literary magazine, a general interest magazine, a history magazine, a political magazine, etc.?

[James]

I never read the magazine, I just remember it from (I assume) the book's back cover blurb.

I'm guessing, from the nature of the bios, that it was a science mag. I encountered this guy around the time I was reading a lot of Stephen Jay Gould... though I don't know if that's related or coincidental.

[Kris]

The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery of Twentieth-Century Physicists by Abraham Pais?

James, do you recall if the collection covered a single or broad range of sciences?

[James]

It covered a variety of science branches and at least a couple (maybe more) were about pre-20th century men of science.

Unfortunately, I don't recall which were dealt with. I've read a lot of short(er) bios of people and I don't recall which came from that one book.

Thanks, as well, for the suggestion... not it, sadly.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Lasker Awards: Four Decades Of Scientific Medical Progress?

Review here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...

Mentioning this one because it's by Lewis Thomas, who is one of those writers like Stephen Jay Gould whose style is both literary and scientific.

[Kris]

Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by Mario Livio is too recent, but I'll mention it just in case you're interested.

Approximately how many scientists are featured?
Is the book's tone quite serious or somewhat light-hearted/humorous?
Is the language fairly simple or rather technical?

[James]

I don't recall the number of chapters/articles, but it was more then a handful. Could have been more then a dozen. But I honestly don't recall.

The book was serious as to giving the scientists a fair shake, especially when changes to scientific knowledge could make them seem silly, in retrospect. But it was definitely not stuffy. I remember a relaxed style.

The author was one of those guys who wants to make science popular and writes to achieve that, but the technical details weren't very important in this book as it was more about the men, then the work.

[James]

Kris wrote: "Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by Mario Livio is too rece..."

And thanks, for Livio's book. It does seem interesting.

[Jenny]

I don't have a guess (sorry!), but I got so excited just now to realize that there's a Lewis Thomas book I haven't read yet! Also, wanted to follow the thread since the sought-after book sounds like something I'd like to read, too.

Actually I'll throw this out there, though it's a wild guess: The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors, by John Gribbin?

[James]

Jenny wrote: "Actually I'll throw this out there, though it's a wild guess: The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors, by John Gribbin? "

No, but it's already on my "want to read" shelf. A couple of really good ideas, so far. Not what I was looking for, but they end up as future fodder.

Thanks, so far. The magic suggestion is coming soon.

[James]

What is the name of that book?

[Bargle]

Maybe "Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology" by Isaac Asimov?

Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

[James]

No, but thanks.

It was definitely not a really famous writer. And I don't think he wrote fiction, at all.

[James]

I bump...

[James]

I have finally resolved this, by simply stumbling across a trade paperback of the book.



Cranks, Quarks, and the Cosmos, by Jeremy Bernstein.

Thanks, everyone, for the efforts!

[Jenny]

Awesome! Glad you found it, and thanks for sharing. It's going on my to-read list, too.

[James]

Cool. Some of the details I offered were off-base, due to faulty memory (he's a physicist, for example), so it may be my fault that no one called it.