I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right [Hardcover]

An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be acceptedfrom Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners.

For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for theEconomist. Hes seen breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the behavior of the research community, and how support can be withheld for those who dont conform or have the right connections. In this passionately argued and entertaining book, Kaplan narrates the history of the 19th century Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who realized that Childbed fevera devastating infection that only struck women who had recently given birthwas spread by doctors not washing their hands. Semmelweis was met with overwhelming hostility by those offended at the notion that doctors were at fault, and is a prime example of how the scientific community often fights new ideas, even when the facts are staring them in the face.

In vibrant prose, Kaplan reveals scientific cases past and present to make his point. Some are familiar, like Galileo being threatened with torture and Nobel laureate Katalin Karik? being fired when on the brink of discovering how to wield mRNAa finding that proved pivotal for the creation of the Covid-19 vaccine. Others less so, like researchers silenced for raising safety concerns about new drugs, and biologists ridiculed for revealing major flaws in the way rodent research is conducted. Kaplan shows how the scientific community can work faster and better by making reasonably small changes to the forces that shape it.