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A review by mpolcul
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetuated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean
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.