A review by tcranenj
Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor by Brian Keating

5.0

My opinion of this book went back and forth a bit. Early on, I was very much into the Keating's writing and the story he was telling. However, when I got to the first of a few chapters where he offers his prescription for fixing the way the Nobel committee allocates its prizes, I started to smell sour grapes and my interest waned a bit. I kept with it and I'm very glad I did because Keating brings it all together in the latter third of the book. The level of technical detail is just about right for a popular science book. I would have preferred just a bit more, but I usually do with these sorts of books. The attempts to provide strands of connective tissue by way of autobiography are strained at times, but it's Keating's book and he clearly is a key player. When all is written and done, "Losing the Nobel Prize" is a compelling reflection about one of cosmology's most important recent episodes regarding the cosmic microwave background radiation and gravitational waves written by a key contributor still in the prime of his scientific career.

In many ways, "Losing the Nobel Prize" is a fine complement to the another book I recently read by Adam Becker called "What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics". Becker takes a longer, historical and somewhat philosophical perspective in his personality-driven accounting of about 100 years of quantum physics. Keating's focus is squarely on the last 25 years of cosmology and he offers a more practical and systemic consideration of how modern science is done and recognized.