Harry M. Collins

An antidote to the hagiography of science that dispels the idea of clear cut and definitive experiments that change knowledge as we know it. Familiar topics like Pasteur's experiments on spontaneous generation and Einstein's predictions vs Newton's models are made more clear by explaining how they were less clear than we're led to believe. In a world surrounded by half baked studies and media headline manipulation, this is more important than ever. Even the "definitive" experiments weren't, show more and were instead manipulated, interpreted and lobbied for.
The book balances these heroic triumphs of science with lesser known failures, and shows the similarities in the mire of uncertainty. It's the sausage making of advancing scientific understanding and it's ugly. show less

In this book, Collins and Pinch explore several scientific controversies, ranging from settled historical examples like the non-spontaneous generation of life in sterilized mediums, and various proofs of relativity, to modern examples of experimenter's regress in the detection of gravity waves, solar neutrinos, and cold fusion. They amply show that science is a human endeavor, and at the cutting edge it is the human qualities and foibles that matter. As an exploration of relatively show more non-political controversies, this would make a great introduction to the messiness of real science in an intro STS course (which is in fact where I read it). A deserved classic. show less

The Golem takes the form of case histories of some of science's defining moments (Eddington's 'proof' of Einstein's relativity) and some less well-known ones (the sex-life of lizards). The main point is to show how such discoveries and advancements aren't the result of pure logical and experimental method, but occur in conjunction with other factors. Often, controversies are not categorically settled, but things simply move on - due to lack of funding, new discoveries in other fields, etc. show more Pinch and Collins are not sceptical about scientific advance, however, but merely wish to show (like Thomas Kuhn) how it may not be a completely rational process (as its cheerleaders would have us believe). Very readable and fascinating - a great book.

Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator. show less

I read the Traditional Chinese edition of it. The following review contains a little bit of thoughts specifically on the Chinese edition.

從兩位作者的辯證態度到譯者李尚仁老師的譯文風格都很喜歡！作為一個信奉現代醫學體系的人來說，這本書其實更多地是從社會學的角度客觀展現了另一方的視角，讀後對堅信乃至於迷信另類醫療（落實到生活實際上來說主要指中醫）的人以及 anti-vaxxer show more 們多了幾分諒解（。保留參考書目和原文某些重要詞彙的英文也很有幫助，只不過英文部分應該沒有校對，不時出現 trial 變 trail 之類的錯誤⋯⋯很巧的是，在看到書的結尾處柯林斯記錄平區夫婦如何選擇百日咳疫苗的例子時，剛好陪朋友去看病，醫生的診斷結果含糊且不大看好，在決定治療手段之前也恰巧採取了和平區夫婦相似的舉措：翻查該醫生此前發表的論文⋯⋯ show less