Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever by Hall Hellman

In Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever, Hall Hellman tells the stories of ten of the most interesting disputes from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. As the book goes on he reveals that these arguments are not only fueled by intellectual opinions, but also by ambition, jealousy, politics, and faith. The first story explores why Galileo was forced to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun instead of vice versa. The book shifts focus several times from the age of the Earth, to Geometry, to Pangaea, to species evolution, to Physics etc. Each of which are all significant and have shaped the modern world.
Many of these disputes relate to science concepts. The chapter titled Pope Urban VIII versus Galileo has to do with the order of the Universe. It was common belief during that time, the 17th century, that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Through constant observation, Galileo discovered that this was not true. Not only did he realize that the Earth revolves around the sun, but also that the Earth spins on its own axis. The book also goes on to talk about a controversial, yet widely accepted topic, evolution (natural selection), “Let it also be borne in mind how infinitely complex and closefitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life; and consequently what infinitely varied diversities of structure might be of use to each being under changing conditions of life…this preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called natural selection…” (pg. 83).
This book doesn’t really do much to change science or society. It was written to inform people about the disagreements surrounding the greatest scientific discoveries.