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mpolcul's review
4.0
“No, what makes mad scientists mad isn’t their lack of logic or reason or scientific acumen. It’s that they do science too well, to the exclusion of their humanity.”
In other words, mad scientists don’t look like the men with wild-eyes, untamed hair, and white lab coats that we likely all imagine. They are regular scientists whose pursuit of knowledge or fame destroyed their humanity.
Mad scientists look much more like Thomas Edison and a slew of other scientists and explorers we may know.
These stories were fascinating, thought-provoking, and well-written. I got more details on stories I knew and learned about several new ones.
I appreciated the critical examination of museums (as someone who studied museums in school) and the hesitancy to call these scientists monsters as it makes it all to easy to shrug them off as anomalies.
Unfortunately, with this book being all about ethics, I really had trouble with the language used. Among other problematic terms, I noted the use of pr*stitute and g*psy. I don’t believe Kean can claim ignorance as the book was so well-researched, there’s no way he could have missed that these terms are problematic.
In less serious issues, I didn’t like that “future crimes” were discussed in the introduction as being a major feature, but they were relegated to the Appendix (which wasn’t even an appendix).
The book also mention Kean’s podcast several times. While I appreciated the offer of more information, it broke up the flow of the book and really just made it seem like a plug for his podcast.
I still felt that this book deserved a high star rating, but the problematic terms are a huge issue; and I hope that Kean will at least fix these in his life and podcast.
In other words, mad scientists don’t look like the men with wild-eyes, untamed hair, and white lab coats that we likely all imagine. They are regular scientists whose pursuit of knowledge or fame destroyed their humanity.
Mad scientists look much more like Thomas Edison and a slew of other scientists and explorers we may know.
These stories were fascinating, thought-provoking, and well-written. I got more details on stories I knew and learned about several new ones.
I appreciated the critical examination of museums (as someone who studied museums in school) and the hesitancy to call these scientists monsters as it makes it all to easy to shrug them off as anomalies.
Unfortunately, with this book being all about ethics, I really had trouble with the language used. Among other problematic terms, I noted the use of pr*stitute and g*psy. I don’t believe Kean can claim ignorance as the book was so well-researched, there’s no way he could have missed that these terms are problematic.
In less serious issues, I didn’t like that “future crimes” were discussed in the introduction as being a major feature, but they were relegated to the Appendix (which wasn’t even an appendix).
The book also mention Kean’s podcast several times. While I appreciated the offer of more information, it broke up the flow of the book and really just made it seem like a plug for his podcast.
I still felt that this book deserved a high star rating, but the problematic terms are a huge issue; and I hope that Kean will at least fix these in his life and podcast.
thelilbulldozer's review
4.0
Chapter 7 is still with me after the month and half that has passed since I read it. The best, most disturbing chapter for this book.
somestuff's review against another edition
3.0
it was okay
definitely pop history in that there’s not much nuance detail or analysis but does give some cursory stories of fraud and ethics violations of scientists across the ages
I think there is a little struggle in each chapter to tell the story of a specific scientist vs trying to expand that to general ethics violations of the time period which isn’t bad but usually just made me feel like some violations were glossed over
but chapters on dinosaurs/extreme rivalry, species classification/slavery, and sex reassignment/patient abuse were all interesting (although the slavery chapter and the piracy chapter were rather soft on concepts of slavery, child marriage (somehow), and colonialism in general but that can be understood bc this was more a book on scientists rather than their benefits from the cultural + political evils of the time though it would have been more interesting if included more abt how they each support eachother)
but i did want to downgrade it to 2 stars for him referencing his own podcast in footnotes and having ‘expanded info on his website’ like buddy you’ve got 300pgs plus just include it in a footnote or endnote truly thumbs down on that
also the epilogue on future space crimes… was bad
samofthepnw's review
4.0
Super fun read! If you liked any of Sam Kean’s stuff you will enjoy this. Great intersection of science history and ethics. Told in a funny narrative that reads like fiction but makes you think and reflect.
dmurphy's review
3.0
I really wanted to like this book more. Some of the chapters just got bogged down and were less enjoyable
pineconek's review against another edition
3.0
File under: something I would have loved about a decade ago.
The icepick surgeon is a collection of chapters taking us through terrible things done by scientists in the past few centuries. We move chronologically through time and touch on some of the big ones (grave robbing, lobotomies) and things I hadn't heard much about (Edison's electricity stuff and rivalry with Tesla, some cold war spy stuff around project Manhattan, among others). While somewhat disjointed and relying a bit heavily on "if you want to know more, come listen to my podcast!", this was overall and entertaining read.
Recommended if you want to read a book that sounds like a podcast (I'm sure the audiobook would have been a good experience), like grisly tales of dark history, and don't mind people being glib about terrible things.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/Wj9tTFqo-BM
The icepick surgeon is a collection of chapters taking us through terrible things done by scientists in the past few centuries. We move chronologically through time and touch on some of the big ones (grave robbing, lobotomies) and things I hadn't heard much about (Edison's electricity stuff and rivalry with Tesla, some cold war spy stuff around project Manhattan, among others). While somewhat disjointed and relying a bit heavily on "if you want to know more, come listen to my podcast!", this was overall and entertaining read.
Recommended if you want to read a book that sounds like a podcast (I'm sure the audiobook would have been a good experience), like grisly tales of dark history, and don't mind people being glib about terrible things.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/Wj9tTFqo-BM
hannah16_'s review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
This was super fascinating. Loved that it started with piracy. The transition to each new topic was really well done and the range of topics was impressive. A good thought provoking read and now I have so many more interesting historical stories to tell people.