A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud

Recommended to me by a botanist friend, this is about more than plants. I would recommend this to anyone who looks to science for definitive truth.
The majority of the book is devoted to his search for the real facts about a questionable report of a species in an unexpected location. The presence of plants is used by other scientific disciplines, e.g. to indicate climate changes, and archeological dating.
A non-botanist need not worry about not understanding specialized terms. Sabbagh admits he didn't know how to tell most plants apart, and describes his impression of the sedges in question as "stalks of grass with little blobby clusters of seeds at the top." (p.98) What he knew how to do was to analyze the events and relationships to show more come up with a likely explanation.
Part of his research was to go beyond the botanical coverup to understand why a respected scientist would make up results. He came across C.P. Snow's book "The Affair", which dealt with alleged fraud at a Cambridge College. That led him to do more research for scientists who were out to prove their theory, or their new technique, that they passionately believed was right. Sabbagh provides 3 such instances, selected from many more he found in his research: biofeedback, the structure of auxin (a plant hormone), and fossil finds which would change our theory of earth's development. I was quite interested in the question of biofeedback because that is an alternative health technique that I've considered using. And while Sabbagh doesn't say it has been proven as completely ineffective, he did find reports that a particular application was based on rigged data.

Why is this important now? Our society has recently facing a number of crises which need sound science to help us determine how to proceed: Covid transmission and treatment, how much climate change is affected by human/social actions, and (surprisingly, still) some school districts are want creationism taught instead of evolution. There are people invested in their theories (which should really be called hypotheses) on opposing sides of these topics. Scientists sometimes have vested interest (i.e. financial rewards) for promoting and 'proving' they are right. And us non-citizens have to sort through the popular media hyperbole to try to determine what we need to do. Chapter 8 presents some indicators to look for in evaluating the veracity of scientific reports; e.g. they will get a respected scientist to identify a specimen and then use them as a reference to prove their finding even tho the scientist was not confirming the location of the find. This book also reveals the hesitancy of professionals in exposing fraud.
This book was first recommended to me about 15 years ago. I delayed reading it because I thought it had to do with British colonial sugar cane plantations. How wrong I was! Don't make my mistake. Give your brain some training in analytical thinking by reading this book instead of listening to more slanted rants. show less

A gripping tale of botanical fraud, and one which prompted me to make a three-day trip to the island described, which was one of the most fascinating experiences I've had in my life. Sabbagh does a remarkable job outlining this complicated story.

Sabbagh tries as hard as he can to make 1940’s British botany lurid and exciting. While those looking for more intrigue in their plant plagiarism may go elsewhere, Sabbagh very competently lays out the whole sordid saga. J.W. Heslop Harrison goes to the Isle of Rum, allegedly plants and then “discovers” new grasses on the island; John Raven is sent on a mission to prove him fraudulent. With all the principal characters dead, the author goes sedge sleuthing and tries to remain neutral. A very quick, readable tale.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/580-a-rum-affair-by-karl-sabbagh/

LA Times Book Prize Finalist
good reviews. I found it interesting about scientists lying about their work but it was too long