Brilliant blunders : from Darwin to Einstein - colossal mistakes by great scientists that changed our understanding of life and the universe / Mario Livio.
Title:
Brilliant blunders : from Darwin to Einstein - colossal mistakes by great scientists that changed our understanding of life and the universe / Mario Livio.
ISBN:
9781439192368
Personal Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Information:
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Physical Description:
341 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Contents:
Mistakes and blunders -- The origin -- Yea, all which I inherit, shall dissolve -- How old is the Earth? -- Certainty generally is illusion -- Interpreter of life -- Whose DNA is it anyway? -- B for big bang -- The same throughout eternity? -- The "biggest blunder" -- Out of empty space.
Summary:
Describes how five famous scientists actually made major errors in the interpretation of their data and how the further investigations of these mistakes led to scientific breakthroughs in such disciplines as biology, medicine, and cosmology. Drawing on the lives of these five great scientists: Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein, the author shows how even the greatest scientists made major mistakes and how science built on these errors to achieve breakthroughs, especially into the evolution of life and the universe.
OCLC Number:
ocn800024790
Availability:
Eagan - Wescott~1
