Review: When Science Goes Wrong by Simon LeVay
Posted on | April 22, 2010 | Comments Off
Whenever scientific activities are undertaken there is the potential for it to go wrong. Sometimes that just means that nothing happens – as many science teachers will tell you, after building up their classes expectations! Unfortunately, it also means that bad things may happen as well.
This book documents twelve cases in which scientific activities went wrong in an extreme way. Covering a wide range of disciplines, including neuroscience, space science, microbiology and engineering, Simon LeVay describes a scenario and what went wrong, and then he explains the science behind each event before exploring lessons learned.
In the same way that “disaster television” is compulsive viewing, this book is a fascinating read. Perhaps what is most fascinating is the varied ways in which the problems are caused. From researchers totally disregarding control procedures in their quest for results, leading to the death of a volunteer subject, to a simple problem of the wrong use of units, which causes the destruction of a multi-million dollar Mars orbiter, the mess-ups are as diverse as the results.
There is no overall lesson to learn from this book, except that science can and does go wrong in a variety of ways. Some of the accounts demonstrate the wisdom of Review Boards and safety equipment, others demonstrate that cutting costs can lead to problems, while others just support the well-known truth that “accidents happen”. The interesting conclusion that LeVay leaves us with is that risks have to be taken in science if progress is going to be made, and with risks comes the possibility of disaster. We should be grateful that in addition to many careful and safety conscious scientists, there are others who are willing to take risks in order to advance the cause of science.
To buy the book click the image above.
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