Nobel Dreams: Power, Deceit and the Ultimate Experiment
Carlo Rubbia recently won a Nobel Prize for his work in experimental particle physics. This book recounts the tale of how the Prize was won. It also describes some of the subsequent work done by Rubbia and his group during the middle 1980s. From Taubes's description we come to see this scientist as a thoroughly unpleasant person, obsessed by the need to be best. He terrorizes his subordinates and co-workers and lies to his peers. Most disheartening is that he is interested only in publishing first and exhibits little patience for the kind of meticulous attention to detail that guarantees the accuracy of his results. If Taubes's account is true, then the quest for the Nobel Prize may be doing more harm than good to the cause of scientific progress.Harold D. Shane, Mathematics Dept., Baruch Coll., CUNYCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.