Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: what is history for?
Part 1: Right for the wrong reasons
1: The pasteurization of spontaneous generation
2: 'The battle over the electron'
3: The eclipse of Isaac Newton: Arthur Eddington's 'proof' of general relativity
4: Very unscientific management
5: The Hawthorne studies: finding what you are looking for
Conclusion to Part 1: sins against science?
Part 2: Telling science as it was
6: Myth in the time of cholera
7: 'The priest who held the key': Gregor Mendel and the ratios of fact and fiction
8: Was Joseph Lister Mr Clean?
9: The Origin of Species by means of use-inheritance
10: 'A is for ape, B is for Bible': science, religion, and melodrama
11: Painting yourself into a corner: Charles Best and the discovery of insulin
12: Alexander Fleming's dirty dishes
13: 'A decoy of Satan'
Conclusion to Part 2: sins against history?
Notes on sources
Index

About the Author

John C. Waller was born in England in 1972. He gained a 'double first' in Modern History at the University of Oxford and went on to take Masters degrees in Human Biology and the History of Science and Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science at University College London in 2001. He is now a Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews

`Review from previous edition Waller writes with clarity and flair . . . [he] has a real talent for telling a story.'
Roy Porter
`Everyone with an interest in science should read this book.'
Focus
`a great read'
Nature
`Waller tells these stories well ... [his] examples are a valuable look sideways at the rolling juggernaut of modern science.'
Martin Ince, New Scientist