num_pages: 320
description: As John Waller shows in Einstein's Luck , many of our greatest scientists were less than honest about their experimental data. Some were not above using friends in high places to help get their ideas accepted. And some owe their immortality not to any unique discovery but to a combination ofastonishing effrontery and their skills as self-promoters.Here is a catalog of myths debunked and icons shattered. We discover that Louis Pasteur was not above suppressing "awkward" data when it didn't support the case he was making. We also learn that Arthur Eddington's famous experiment that "proved" Einstein's theory of relativity was fudged Andwhile it is true that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by lucky accident, he played almost no role in the years of effort to convert penicillin into a usable drug. Einstein's Luck restores to science its complex personalities, bitter rivalries, and intense human dramas which until recentlyhave been hidden behind myths and misconceptions. This richly entertaining book will transform the way we think about science and scientists.
language: English
title: Einstein's Luck: The Truth behind Some of the Greatest Scientific Discoveries
titlecomplete: Einstein's Luck: The Truth behind Some of the Greatest Scientific Discoveries
genres: Nonfiction, Science, History
ratings_count: 23
publisher: Oxford University Press