Innovators: 16 Visionary Scientists and Their Struggle for Recognition―From Galileo to Barbara McClintock and Rachel Carson

by Donald R. Kirsch

Scientific breakthroughs that changed the way we understand the world—and the fascinating stories of the scientists behind them

Some of the most significant breakthroughs in science don’t receive widespread recognition until decades later, sometimes after their author’s death. Nobel Prize–winner Max Planck, whose black-body radiation law established the discipline of quantum mechanics, stated this as what has become known as Planck’s principle, commonly summarized as “Science progresses one funeral at a time.” In other words, for some truly groundbreaking discoveries, a new consensus builds only when proponents of the old consensus die off. Breakthrough discoveries require a paradigm shift, and it takes time and new minds for the new paradigm to be adopted.
 
In Innovators , Donald Kirsch tells the stories of sixteen visionary scientists who suffered this fate, some now famous like Max Planck himself, Galileo, and Gregor Mendel, and some less well known. Among them are Barbara McClintock who, working with Indian corn, discovered transposons, also known as jumping genes, which provide a major mechanism driving biological evolution; Rachel Carson, catalyst for the environmental movement; and Roger Revelle, the climatologist whose findings were the first to be described by the term “global warming.” The breakthroughs cover fields from biology to medicine to physics and earth sciences and include the discovery of prions, life-changing treatments such as drugs for high blood pressure, ulcers, and organ transplantation; the process of continental drift; and our understanding of how molecules form matter.

Genres: Science

360 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2023

Reviews

[Cody Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is well written and while some details may go over my head, especially in medicine, the key points are always explained clearly. It was really interesting to learn the context of the world before the inventions, how unique ideas and perspectives enabled the inventions, and then how the world reacted to it. It was quite interesting to get a better reason as to why the world is often slow to accept new ideas, but I don’t think that should be the main reason to read this book. Really interesting and good storytelling. Galileo, Carson, and Wegener were my favorite chapters

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recognition often comes slowly after discovery. People proceed through three phases: What utter nonsense, that can't be true. Maybe there's something there to rethink. I always knew it! Serendipity, perseverance, and slow recognition leads to Nobel prizes. An insightful look into sixteen stories of innovation that shook the foundations of our world and led to the one we now live in.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Innovation is tough. One should be compassionate toward creative people in all fields of endeavor. Their contributions to the human condition are of extraordinary value, while at the same time creative people often suffer deeply in their struggle to achieve validation and recognition"

In this work, Kirsch tells many stories of scientific innovation, spanning centuries and disciplines. Kirsch writes in a way that feels approachable to non-science folk, without over simplifying the science. He spends a lot of time talking about the story behind the science, the challenges these innovators face, the successes they have, and the legacies they leave. This book is a pleasant blend of biography, history, and science. Kirsch peppers in his own stories on occasion, which feel a little tangential, but not in a distracting way. Kirsch's writing made me feel like I was in a lecture hall where Professor Kirsch gets really excited about the topic and had his own bits of wisdom to share to make things feel more real and personal to the audience.

I think Innovators will get the "I don't like science" students interested in and appreciative of the struggle and humanity that goes into the development of new science and technology. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult review to write. The idea is a good one - sixteen innovative scientists whose ideas were first doubted but came to be mainstream thinking. Donald Kirsch does a good job of making their work accessible. The focus is heavily biased towards medical science (reflecting the author's background) with the likes McClintock, Semmelweis, Rous, Prusiner, Cushman and Ondetti, Sehgal and Warren and Marshall. If most of these names are unfamiliar, I'd also suggest that most aren't as transformative as the likes of Galileo, Planck, and Wegener, but they still provide interesting stories.

I'm not sure I would have included Rachel Carson, who despite being a scientist isn't well known for visionary science (and whose advocacy resulted in the abandonment of DDT, even in controlled fashion that could have saved many lives). But my big concern about the book is the result of two others names already mentioned above. These are the ones I know a significant amount about - and both are flawed. Admittedly that's just two out of 16 - but I can't help but wonder if there are aspects of other subjects that are equally problematic. My bugbears are Galileo and Planck.

Although Kirsch is mostly historically okay on Galileo, the piece on him totally misses the point any historian of science would make that his major contribution to science was nothing to do with the Copernican system, but his physics book Two New Systems. While Galileo did make a couple of first astronomical observations, notably the Galilean moons of Jupiter, his support of the Copernican system was just one of many, with most of his observations already made by others (and his observations actually could just as easily have supported the Tychonian system). The only reason, to be honest, this part of his work is of such interest is the story of his trial, not his science. And, of course, it wasn't his original idea.

By contrast, the Planck piece demonstrates over and over that the author has no clue about quantum physics, or physics history. Just to give a couple of examples, we are told ‘Einstein published his theory [of relativity] in 1905 and received the Nobel Prize in 1921, reasonably quick acceptance for such a totally revolutionary idea.’ Admittedly he did publish his special theory of relativity in 1905, but his big one, the general theory was published in 1915 (and the text makes it clear the author is referring to both theories). Most damningly, Einstein got his Nobel Prize for a totally different piece of work on the photoelectric effect - it had nothing to do with relativity. Another example: we are told that Schrodinger’s cat experiment ‘is binary… it happens that all computing is binary, based on strings of ones and zeroes…’ and uses this as an explanation of quantum computing. But the whole point of Schrodinger’s cat is that is in a superposed state - and quantum computing is not based on zero/one bits, but on qubits, which aren't binary.

I've never read (or written) a book without a few small errors, but I’m afraid these are too big to overlook.

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Innovators* offers good coverage of a large number of scientists whose work wasn't accepted at first or even during their lifetime. The work is often unexpected results or big leaps forward that took time for the community to process. Every example you can think of is here, and many you didn't know about, and the topic is covered at a level that a high-schooler could read and understand. Adults ought to get just as much out of it. The author covers climate change, of course, but lucklily this isn't all built around that one topic and we move on quickly enough.

I think the book's flaw is that so much of this is presented that the reader begins like to feel like it's the norm and starts asking "so what?". The author does not offer any solutions to the issue, as the book wraps up with its last entry. Neither does it get into the "why" of things to any depth, so I was left wanting a liltle more.

[Kay-Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic deep dive into the social aspects of being a scientist; other scientists and their overwhelming human-ness. The science does not exist in a vacuum but is birthed into a social order.

The author has personal experience with Planck's Principal. Then Planck is the first "innovator" to be profiled. So, perhaps it is a little self-indulgent. However, the historical detail and scientific context of each innovator are extremely well-researched. The book is clearly explained so that even an artsy person like me could follow and I felt like many phrases were opened up for me in this book.

"Quantum Computing" is not a scary concept anymore, and authors like Douglas Adams and Madelaine L'Engle, who use a lot of scientific terminology, seem less abstract.

Absolutely fantastic!

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scientific revolutions hinge on overcoming established thinking to embrace new realities. This book profiles 16 visionaries across diverse fields, from physics to earth science, whose perseverance led to transformative yet delayed breakthroughs like continental drift and global warming. By spotlighting the dismissals faced by innovators like Gregor Mendel and Rachel Carson, it reveals the stubborn resistance even to discoveries that profoundly advanced human knowledge.

This book is fascinating and easy to read. The stories are human and sometimes heartbreaking, but also show that in science, truth eventually prevails.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donald R. Kirsch brings some of the great scientific minds of the last five hundred years to life in this book on the history of science. Blending scientific discoveries from the last two centuries with early modern scientific minds from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Kirsch brings the history of science and the evolutions within the various scientific disciplines into conversation with each other. Focusing on case studies of various scientists, Kirsch highlights the parallel developments of scientific concepts by various individuals, bringing them in conversation with others working on similar discoveries and theories. The structure and prose of the book is straightforward, and Kirsch adds images of the various scientists throughout the book to give readers a visual element. He also explains the various scientific concepts and theories very well, in a way that people without science background can understand. The variety and detail of information in this book is particularly enjoyable, and Kirsch goes into incredible (yet understandable) scientific detail in every chapter of the book for every scientific mind he discusses. This book is easily accessible for readers of all backgrounds, and scientists and historians alike are sure to enjoy Innovators by Donald R Kirsch.

Thanks to NetGalley, Skyhorse Publishing, and Arcade for the advance copy.