Scientific Blunders

by Robert Youngson

I was expecting a book full of vignettes about scientists who truely blundered — ignoring facts and massaging data to the point of very bad results. Instead, for the most part, the book is full of tales of scientists who “blundered” because they didn’t know any better, generally from a lack of technology or data to chose between two or more options. In several cases, it seems that Youngson was stretching to describe a “blunder” just to include a favorite topic in this volume.

I’m not saying this wasn’t a good book — the topics are adequately covered and at a level that most people should be able to grasp. However, it was not what I was expecting, which was a bit of a disappointment.