Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

Students struggling in an introductory chemistry course with the difficulties of the subject’s fundamentals could be forgiven for thinking no individuals that they’d care to know were involved. Chemistry can seem a sort of hidden subterranean conjuring governed by obscure wizards with bent bodies and crumpled, cranky souls whose products, as an 18th century visitor to Liverpool noted, were “pills, coal, glass, chemicals, cripples, millionaires, and paupers.” Is that fair?

Well, mostly show more no. In Sharon Bertsch McGrayne’s Prometheans in the Lab we meet some important actors in the story. They’re worth hearing about. Readers already averse to chemistry’s technicalities will find a few chemical structures and equations with which to grapple but these aren’t often an impediment.

The author has assembled a diverse group (if one is permitted to call an all-male group “diverse”) who reveal a spectrum of character to admire or decry. In the final chapter, we find a hero in Clair C. Patterson, whose work led famed novelist Saul Bellow to nominate him for the Nobel Prize. We are brought to appreciate the social contexts in which these men worked. The stories present the complexities of attempting that which benefits us at risk of damaging us too. The author doesn’t much pursue explicitly how to reconcile such diverging effects or how to value one act over another and perhaps it’d be a stronger book had she attended to it more. That could, however, detract from the narratives she chose to tell, narratives which interested and surprised me. These stories make Prometheans in the Lab a fine contribution among books discussing chemistry. show less

This is a very important and enraging book. The author has some fascinating stories to tell about her life in science; she’s done a lot of good for the world and has worked to bring more recognition to women as well. The enraging part as always is the men and what they’ve done to actively reduce the contributions of women in science. The author has some beneficial yet depressing advice for women in the science field at the end of the book. God I’m grumpier than usual now...

Bayes theory is cute. Pop nonfiction math books seem incapable of being patronizing on one extreme or invoking their math theorem as an abstract magical spell on the other. I prefer the later, which is what this is. How did we find Russian submarines? We cast Bayes at them. Sometimes, even as someone very familiar with Bayes theorem I found these invocations impossible to understand what was literally happening, but overall, this is an easy and mathy read. 3.5 stars.

Bayes is a statistical technique for estimating probability that starts off with a guess as an initial condition. This guess has brought it a lot of flack since it was invented in about 1760 from scientists and mathematicians who find the guess unscientific. For most of the 250 years since then it has been niche technique, not quite acceptable in polite mathematical circles, if not provoking outright hostility. However, its influence has grown hugely since the advent of computers which make show more the enormous calculations it requires practical. Surprisingly gripping yarn and very approachable. Recommended. show less