Publisher's Synopsis
This book features quirky, enjoyable and entirely true instances of science going wrong, right and in totally unexpected directions from 600 BC onwards ... Just how did the scientific discoveries that have changed our world come about? Surendra Verma investigates the eureka moments, the serendipities and the plain errors that have peppered science's last 2,000 years. The result is a wonderfully readable insight into the mysteries of human scientific endeavour. From the sixth century BC and Pythagoras' claims that the world was round, to the modern discovery of penicillin, Surendra Verma trawls through history in search of the more human side of science. Who discovered anaesthesia at a party? How did a sewage farm odour reducer benefit medicine? Why did the Cold War prevent the West understanding heart disease? Verma's account of philosophers, physicians, scientists and Nobel Prize winners is a highly informative and brilliantly light-hearted account of how often Lady Luck can play a part in the scientific process.
