Part of a series of People's Histories, this exhaustively documented book debunks the oft-promoted notion of the Great Man of Scientific Genius Laboring Away Alone and Unknown Until His "EUREKA" Moment Changed The World.For a more extensive review, see The Compleat Science Teacher.
Firstly, the book outlines how men we now lionize as authors of scientific breakthroughs were usually summarizers, or at most synthesizers. Even Newton and Einstein, who came close to living and working the myth (in Newton's case he worked alone because he was so arrogant and obnoxious and weird that no one could work with him anyway), used the work of others. Archimedes, who supposedly uttered the famous oath, had many collaborators...and probably didn't run naked from his bath after solving his problem anyway.
Second, a whole lot of scientists were, and are, women. :-)
... and some of the scientists didn't do what they are supposed to have done - well, at least, Hippocrates did not write the 'Oath'!
ReplyDelete