Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the liveliest disputes in science by Hall Hellman

In this book, by Hall Hellman, it talks about ten cases in the history of science and how it struggles to become recognized. Hall writes this book talking about liveliest stories of scientist, who fought with ambition, jealousy, politics, faith, and irresistible human urge to explore both science and spirits of the seventeenth centuries. This book is constructed into 10 chapters. Each chapter talks about one feud and in the title it tells you clearly of whom it is against. These are basic ideas of some chapters.

Chapter 1: Urban VIII vs. Galileo- Galileo was forced to detest his beliefs and work in the head quakes of Rome because it went again the church. He was warned that his concept can get him into trouble. Many scientists like Professor Giulo LIbri also tried not to recognize his invention of the telescope. Although he proved thing right, Urban was furious and unforgiving with his works. When Galileo died his remains were not allowed out of the church bell tower for over a century.

Chapter 2: Wallis vs. Hobbes- Wallis was into geometry and Hobbes was in to mathematics. They started with disagreements and they wrote books insulting each other. Wallis and his colleague ended up writing a book to resolve the scoundrel of Hobbes. In result Hobbes wrote another book “Six lesson to the professors of mathematics one of geometry, the other of astronomy.” In his book, Hobbes referred to Wallis’s book as mere ignorance and gibberish.

Chapter 3: Newton vs. Leibniz- This feud is known as the clash of the titans. Both of these men are true geniuses. These two men discovered calculus independently, or was it plagiarism? Leibniz sought a method that could be used to unlock the secrets of human behavior. For Newton, the calculus was a way of dealing with human behavior. They had two different perspectives of working and for Newton he rather not publishes is work. As for Leibniz, he published his work before Newton. Because of this Newton discount him.

Chapter 7: Cope vs. Marsh- this feud includes charges of plagiarism, incompetence, and even the smashing of fossils to prevent each other from getting them. They both grew up loving fossils. But one was getting too far for greed.

Chapter 10: Derek Freeman vs. Margaret Mead- this is a feud between the dead and alive. When Margaret Mead passed away, Freeman was insisting that many of Mead’s assertion about Samoa are fundamentally in error and some are even false. Although mead was not there at that time, it would have been a battle that s e would have enjoyed. Freeman based his challenge on his years of studies in Western Samoa.

The book has more to come for the history of science, more of outrageous and intriguing disputes. I really like this book because it talks about scientific history, which I never read about and thing that I never even thought about like the disputes over science. It relates to the scientific concept because it talks about science during the historical time and when things were discovered. All the chapters are science related with fossils, invention, discoveries, and research. Hal manages to make us visit and explore the time and place where each dispute took place. By placing each event in context, Hellman gives us a real understanding of these major disagreements, discussions, and fights involving some of the greatest thinkers in our history. The disputes cover disciplines, biology, geology, mathematics, astronomy, and anthropology.

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