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Accidental Genius
Book by Richard Gaughan
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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79 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 8, 2017
Hyvät ja mielenkiintoiset tekstit - tieteen historia kiinnostaa aina. Hauskoja tarinoita siitä kuinka teflon, nailon, bakeliitti, www, penisilliini ja monet muut tieteen läpimurrot tapahtuivat enemmän tai vähemmän tuurilla.
Vähän arvosanaa tiputtaa huolimaton käännös/toimitus, sillä kirjoitusvirheitä löytyy kymmenittäin ja esimerkiksi henkilön nimi saattoi olla 3 eri tavalla samalla sivulla. Harmi, sillä tästä jäi nyt vähän sellainen höpöhöpökuva, vaikka kirjan sisältö oli oikeastaan varsin kiinostava ja lähdeluettelo kattava.
Vähän arvosanaa tiputtaa huolimaton käännös/toimitus, sillä kirjoitusvirheitä löytyy kymmenittäin ja esimerkiksi henkilön nimi saattoi olla 3 eri tavalla samalla sivulla. Harmi, sillä tästä jäi nyt vähän sellainen höpöhöpökuva, vaikka kirjan sisältö oli oikeastaan varsin kiinostava ja lähdeluettelo kattava.
August 1, 2017
Accidental Genius is a fascinating look at serendipitous discoveries throughout history. Luck does indeed favor those who are prepared, alert, and open-minded.
January 25, 2018
Very interesting read on how often chance has a way of facilitating big inventions and findings. Loved it.
March 7, 2014
Very interesting cruise thru scientific history stopping to look at the inventions that came about thru accidental means. But as the book endeavors to explain, 'accidental' means a bit more than 'some guy just happened to see an apple fall and out pops the theory of gravity'. You or I, unless trained in a scientific field will probably not receive any Nobel prize for a scientific invention.
This is because the 'accidents' also need the scientist's adequate preparation and interest in a field to understand what is being seen, their level of curiosity concerning the accident and finally their ability or opportunity to do something with this experience.
The stories are short and tell about famous 'accidental discoveries' like Archemedes' 'Ureka' story as well as not- so- famous scientists like Semmelweis who discovered that anti-biotic handwashing (with bleach) by doctors would save lives, esp. those of new mothers.
Gaughan progresses chronologically thru the world's history presenting Al Haitham, a Persian who established an experimental process for evaluating scientific ideas or theories to Harry Coovers who invented Superglue right to the present with Burners-Lee who came up with the World Wide Web.
I was fascinated to know that many inventions were actually discovered years and years before the products or services or information hit the general public!
The problem with the book is its very small print, and other artistic bits that make the book a bit more difficult to read. Some of it is in hand-writing, there are fake blotches and water-damage drawn thru-out the book, distracting the reader.
OTOH, there are lots of pictures and diagrams to make the stories in the book more interesting to lay readers.
This is because the 'accidents' also need the scientist's adequate preparation and interest in a field to understand what is being seen, their level of curiosity concerning the accident and finally their ability or opportunity to do something with this experience.
The stories are short and tell about famous 'accidental discoveries' like Archemedes' 'Ureka' story as well as not- so- famous scientists like Semmelweis who discovered that anti-biotic handwashing (with bleach) by doctors would save lives, esp. those of new mothers.
Gaughan progresses chronologically thru the world's history presenting Al Haitham, a Persian who established an experimental process for evaluating scientific ideas or theories to Harry Coovers who invented Superglue right to the present with Burners-Lee who came up with the World Wide Web.
I was fascinated to know that many inventions were actually discovered years and years before the products or services or information hit the general public!
The problem with the book is its very small print, and other artistic bits that make the book a bit more difficult to read. Some of it is in hand-writing, there are fake blotches and water-damage drawn thru-out the book, distracting the reader.
OTOH, there are lots of pictures and diagrams to make the stories in the book more interesting to lay readers.
February 23, 2011
This book is really interesting and i think anyone that is interested in inventions and the history of them, i think this would be a great choice for them. It does have some graphic pictures though, hence the four stars. I learned here about the leyden jar, a very, very, basic model of holding electricity in a solid so as to have it be portable.If one touched the metal bar at the tip, the got served a nasty electric shock, and probably survived considering the amount of electricity built up in the jar, and also the duration in which the finger was in contact with the jar's metal conductive pole. The jar was charged through using the kinetic energy of turning a handle at a high speed, creating sparks that traveled from the hook on the generator (handle) to the leyden jars.
January 25, 2011
Not a bad little book for some nice overviews of significant scientific discoveries made, in part, by chance. I enjoyed it and hope to do little more research on some of these discoveries in the future.
May 31, 2014
Hauska kokoelma tieteellisiä erehdyksiä, jotka johtivat jonkin tärkeän keksimiseen.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews