Fabulous Science: Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery

Title Page......Page 4
Contents......Page 8
Illustrations......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Introduction:  What Is History For?......Page 14
Telling Science As It Is......Page 19
Part I:  Right for the Wrong Reasons......Page 23
  1:  The Pasteurization of Spontaneous Generation......Page 27
'Life Is the Germ, and the Germ Is Life'......Page 31
Were Pasteur's Results Decisive?......Page 36
Spontaneous Generation Equals Evolutionism Equals Heresy......Page 40
The Preconceptions of Louis Pasteur......Page 43
  2:  The Battle Over the Electron......Page 45
Particles and Waves Before Millikan......Page 47
A Stroke of Luck and a Breakthrough......Page 50
Guilty as Charged......Page 52
Felix Ehrenhaft's Critique......Page 54
More of Millikan's Manipulations......Page 55
Positives and Negatives......Page 57
  3:  The Eclipse of Isaac Newton:  Arthur Eddington's 'Proof' of General Relativity......Page 61
Meet the Teams......Page 66
The Problems......Page 67
The Results Stage......Page 68
The Interpretation Stage......Page 70
Status and Trust......Page 72
In Matters of Gravity, Weight Counts......Page 76
  4:  Very Unscientific Management......Page 77
'A Little Pennsylvania Dutchman'......Page 81
The Piece-Rate......Page 83
Gillespie, Wolle, and the Piece-Rate......Page 85
  5:  The Hawthorne Studies:  Finding What You Are Looking For......Page 91
First Relay Assembly Group:  The Yardstick......Page 94
Second Relay Assembly Group and the Mica Splitters......Page 96
'. . . As Them That Won't See'......Page 98
Changing Horses Mid-Race......Page 99
Seeking Salvation......Page 103
Difficulties With Figures......Page 107
'A Debate With Marx's Ghost'......Page 109
Conclusion to Part One:  Sins Against Science?......Page 112
Part II:  Telling Science As It Was......Page 121
  6:  Myth In the Time of Cholera......Page 127
The Causes of Cholera......Page 130
Cholera and Contagion......Page 136
The Germs of the Germ Theory......Page 137
The Myth of Scientific Detachment......Page 140
Was John Snow the Father of Epidemiology?......Page 141
Snow the Synthesizer......Page 142
  7:  'The Priest Who Held the Key':  Gregor Mendel and the Ratios of Fact and Fiction......Page 145
Classical Mendelian Genetics......Page 148
What Was Gregor Mendel Doing in 1865?......Page 152
Ratios of Dominants and Recessives......Page 156
Segregation, Characters, and Elements......Page 158
The Law of Independent Assortment......Page 162
The Mendelian Ratios......Page 164
Mendel and Darwin -- A Delayed Marriage?......Page 166
Mendel As Founding Father......Page 169
  8:  Was Joseph Lister Mr. Clean?......Page 173
Why Was Lister Out In the Cold?......Page 177
Was Joseph Lister In Any Sense a Pioneer?......Page 180
Cresting the Wave......Page 182
Reinvention and Renewal......Page 184
  9:  The Origin of Species By Means of Use-Inheritance......Page 189
Charles Darwin:  The Myth......Page 191
'Never Let the Facts Get In the Way of a Good Story'......Page 193
Evolution Before Darwin......Page 194
Growth and Reproduction Are As One......Page 197
The Early Notebooks......Page 200
Darwinism and Use-Inheritance, 1838-59......Page 204
The Indirect Effects of the Environment......Page 205
Pride and Progress......Page 208
Putting Darwinism On Hold......Page 209
Context and Contingency......Page 215
10:  'A Is For Ape, B Is For Bible':  Science, Religion, and Melodrama......Page 217
Wilberforce's Waterloo?......Page 221
Science and Religion in Harmony......Page 223
The Young Turks......Page 225
Enemies of Science......Page 228
The Aftermath:  Conflict or Compromise?......Page 229
Post Mortem......Page 232
11:  Painting Yourself Into a Corner:  Charles Best and the Discovery of Insulin......Page 235
The Facts of the Case......Page 238
From Colleagues to Rivals......Page 243
Best Comes In from the Cold......Page 245
The Muddying of the Waters......Page 248
A Twist In the Tale......Page 253
Only Human Nature?......Page 255
12:  Alexander Fleming's Dirty Dishes......Page 259
Fortune and Fakery......Page 262
'A Very Well-Known Phenomenon'......Page 266
'My Old Penicillin'......Page 267
'The Period of Failure and Neglect'......Page 269
From Wonder Drug to Reagent . . .......Page 272
The Biochemists Have a Go......Page 276
'This Great Pioneer'......Page 279
13:  'A Decoy of Satan'......Page 281
'The Religious Objection'......Page 286
The View From the Pulpit......Page 289
So Why Resort to Print?......Page 291
Science, Religion, and Myth......Page 294
Conclusion to Part Two:  Sins Against History?......Page 297
Notes on Sources......Page 309
Index......Page 315