- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; 1st Edition edition (8 Mar 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0436204630
- ISBN-13: 978-0436204630
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,150,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael White's book Rivals: Conflict as the Fuel of Science is a superb collection of essays describing the personality clashes, petty jealousies and mean-spirited rivalries that have characterised the development and suppression of science and technology throughout history.
Like Melvyn Bragg's recent bestseller On Giants' Shoulders, Rivals tells the story of science through the lives and discoveries of the great scientists. But where Bragg's 12 essays are lightweight sketches, the eight pieces in Rivals are substantial and well researched. While providing a fairly detailed and lucid explanation of the scientific innovations and theories, White is a fine storyteller with a great sense of drama. As one might expect from a veteran historian of science, the stories of Newton and Leibniz, Lavoisier and Priestley, Darwin and Wallace, Edison and Tesla, the race for the Atom Bomb, Crick and Watson, the Space Race and the feuds between Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are told with authority and verve.
The chapter "Atomic Bombs and Human Beings" begins with the aborted assassination attempt of Nobel laureate physicist Werner Heisenberg in a small seminar room at the University of Zurich in December 1944. The story of Edison and Tesla begins at the scene of the first execution-by-electric-chair of a man who remained alive after the first blast of electric current before the second literally baked him from the inside. This is a highly educational and thoroughly entertaining journey through some of the momentous episodes in the history of science. Suitable even for beginners, and a thumping good read even if you thought you knew it all already. --Larry Brown
Product Description
Wherever there is science, there are scientists; and wherever there are scientists there is rivalry. Rivalry is a key feature of scientific endeavour. This text examines eight instances in the history of science and technology that changed the world, in all of which the stress of rivalry played a pivotal role. The driving force of rivalry takes many forms, whether between individual scientists, groups of scientists, institutions or among the international scientific community. The stories of Newton and Leibniz, Lavoisier and Priestley, Darwin and Wallace, Edison and Tesla, the race for the atom bomb, Crick and Watson, the space race, and the feuds between Bill Gates and Larry Ellison illustrate the varying forms rivalry can take.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
We like to think of scientists (and they like to think of themselves) as noble intellectuals driven purely to push back intellectual boundaries in the name of helping human beings. They are unaffected by baser emotions such as jealousy, competition, aggression and spite.
What this book shows is the nasty side of the personalities of science. We see clashes of colossal egos, as established and powerful professors suppressing the brilliant work of younger, up-and-coming minds who threaten the status quo. We see talented yet naive scientists being ruthlessly exploited, their discoveries and inventions plundered for little reward. We see reputations and credibilities being deliberately destroyed. We see results being plagiarised. We see personal attacks with appalling venom and spite. We see the establishment suppressing the mavericks at every turn. And just occasionally, we watch the mighty in their ivory towers come crashing down.
As entertaining as a gladiatorial combat, White shows us how, time and again, great intellects clash against each other, throwing off sparks of hatred.
Deeply researched, richly detailed, yet with a strong undercurrent of narrative, White's book is compelling and powerful. White speculates on rivalry as a goad to encourage work and speed results. He also speculates on the nature of genius: whilst undoubtedly astonishingly clever, many of the characters we meet are dislikeable, and some are plain nasty.
The striking theme of the book is that the conflicts between the great minds of today are little different from those of Newton's time, at the dawn of modern science.
This book is extremely enjoyable, and well worth a place on any bookshelf.
Format:Paperback
This book is an excellent read for scientists because it is an easily absorbed history of science, about which not a lot of active scientists have nuch knowledge. It is far from comprehensive, of course, because it is not intended as a general treatment of the subject but certainly should improve one's understanding. Focus on a few pivotal characters and their interactions with colleagues and issues of their day gives a readily absorbed, rather journalist framework. The actuality of that framework is perhaps dubious, but as an aphorism about journalism goes, "first simplify, then exaggerate".
Following the line of journalist aphorisms, "good news is no news", characterises the entertainment aspect. The author by no means sinks to the level of reality TV but, as advertised in the title, it is about rivalry and conflict. Not inhabiting the more rarefied levels of science, it is impossible to say if the rivalry is exaggerated; it is impossible to say, however, that we "toilers in the field" (ex-toiler in my case) do not occasionally backbite/stab colleagues, but I suspect the rivalry is exaggerated and instances of altruism and cooperation have been minimised. I thoroughly enjoyed and approved of the kicking the author gave Aristotle!
I was impressed by the author's erudition, but was shocked by the error he makes in the Bill Gates section about ASR-33 teletypes being computers! It rather undermined my confidence in what he had to say earlier! So that one part of the book should get a very low rating (the star scale is about liking, not accuracy). I can say, however, that his section on WWII Japanese atomic research was reasonable, because I confirmed it while revising my historical novel, The Japanese Observer (2012).
Following the line of journalist aphorisms, "good news is no news", characterises the entertainment aspect. The author by no means sinks to the level of reality TV but, as advertised in the title, it is about rivalry and conflict. Not inhabiting the more rarefied levels of science, it is impossible to say if the rivalry is exaggerated; it is impossible to say, however, that we "toilers in the field" (ex-toiler in my case) do not occasionally backbite/stab colleagues, but I suspect the rivalry is exaggerated and instances of altruism and cooperation have been minimised. I thoroughly enjoyed and approved of the kicking the author gave Aristotle!
I was impressed by the author's erudition, but was shocked by the error he makes in the Bill Gates section about ASR-33 teletypes being computers! It rather undermined my confidence in what he had to say earlier! So that one part of the book should get a very low rating (the star scale is about liking, not accuracy). I can say, however, that his section on WWII Japanese atomic research was reasonable, because I confirmed it while revising my historical novel, The Japanese Observer (2012).
Format:Hardcover
This is a great read. I agree with all that was said in the product review - it's very well written, and the thesis - that rivalry actually has a beneficial effect in spurring individuals on - I found intriguing and convincing.
I learned a lot of science history along the way as well.
Thoroughly recommended.
I learned a lot of science history along the way as well.
Thoroughly recommended.
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