Six Reviews of Science

By Armando Simón

The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai

This is a very readable book about the head psychiatrist (Dr. D. Kelley) at the Nuremberg war crimes trial and the Nazis therein. As the title indicates, it is a bi-biography, one half being about the Nuremberg Nazis while they were incarcerated and the other half about Kelley, who was a Type A personality, coming from a family of Type As.

I bought the book because during my graduate student days, I had an instructor, Barry Ritzler, who had examined the Rorschach of the Nazis and given them to other psychometrists to analyze without their knowing whose Rorschach they were. Since the examiners did not know they were the Nazis,’ the judges evaluated the results as being unusual individuals, not psychopaths. Kelley’s dealing with them in prison led him to the same conclusion. An administered IQ test revealed that they had higher than average intelligence. The psychiatrist concluded that there was no “Nazi personality,” (contrary to Hollywood movies).

And that raises a lot of questions.

Very curious.

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

This is a truly excellent book, on several levels. One does not have to be an astronomer to enjoy this little book.

The Double Helix not only detailed how Watson & Crick got around to solving the structure of DNA, but more importantly demonstrated to the world that science is a truly competitive field. This has always been the case ever since Galileo and it is the paradox of science: scientists will cooperate and help each other but at the same time engage in fierce, sometimes cut-throat competition. In this case, Brown and two of his colleagues worked for a very long (tedious) time in unearthing (get it?) dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt, only to be beaten by a Spaniard. However, it turned out that the Spaniard was a pirate. Brown and his colleagues had grit, intelligence, technical skills, intuition; their opponent had none, just a sense of opportunism.

Brown and his other two colleagues could have gone down as the discoverers of three new (dwarf) planets, but after much agonizing (“what is a planet?”) had to admit, and support, the conclusion that the three objects should not be classified as planets.

Brown seems to give a lot of space in the book regarding the birth and upbringing of his daughter and one is, at first, bound to question the relevancy in a book on scientific discovery, but the fact of the matter is that scientists are human beings with private lives that sometimes interfere with one’s scientific work. In fact, Brown abandoned his work for a short period of time to enjoy time with his family.

Throughout, Brown’s humor is present and that, too, is important in dissolving negative stereotypes of scientists.

This is truly one of the classics on the process of scientific research, right along with those of Watson & Crick, Ramón y Cajal, and Hans Selye.

The End of Gender by Debra Soh

It takes courage these days to state what is obvious and self-evident. Dr. Soh has experienced the irony of what many other feminists as herself has experienced. Prior to the transgender cult surfacing, feminists were in the habit of mobbing persons who disputed some of the feminists’ dogmatic statements. Soh, as with other feminists, have realized that the transgender cult is detrimental to women and have said so, with the result that they have been bombarded in social media with insults and threats.

At any rate, Soh goes at length in shooting down myths revolving around the transgender cult. and points out that the targeting of children to become transgender is child abuse, something which is, again, self-evident. Although she presents several research studies to back up her point, the language is very readable.

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier

This book is even better than Soh’s The End of Gender, going into areas that Soh neglected to cover. Nonetheless, they should be read together.

Shrier’s thesis is that the transgender movement is, first of all, a fad: all of a sudden there was an unprecedent spike in transgenders with the advent of Caitlyn Jenner, almost all from white girls, which went against all previous demographical data by professionals. Secondly, there is a gargantuan network of people and institutions encouraging, one way or the other, young people to become transgendered, parental wishes be damned. This same group gives support to the transgenders and marshals a torrent of vituperation against anyone who questions any aspect of the movement. To a large degree, it is a cult.

A while back, the American Booksellers Association sent out this book to its members, and some of them went into hysterics, saying that doing so was “violence”  (yes, they used that word) to its members. This is an example of the hysteria revolving around the transgender cult. And of Newspeak.

Now, there is a powerful Politically Correct cadre within Amazon that sabotages or rejects reviews that go against any of the components of PC ideology (I’m talking from experience). Shrier’s book was taken off Amazon but after outrage was reinstalled.

Aristarchus of Samos by Sir Thomas Heath

This book is strictly for historians of science and astronomers with a historical interest. Aristarchus preceded Copernicus in postulating a heliocentric solar system (which I admit I did not know). Sir Thomas documents the astronomers who, in turn, preceded Aristarchus, translates his surviving work, and discusses the reactions to the astronomer.

It is depressing to realize just how many Greek and Roman works by explorers and scientists have been lost, with only fragments remaining.

The mosquito hypothetically considered as an agent in the transmission of yellow fever poison, 1881 by Carlos Finlay

Carlos Finlay is the only noteworthy scientist from Cuba. This work is a translation of a conference presentation by Finlay wherein he introduced the concept that it was the mosquito that was the vector for yellow fever. His work led to the subsequent elimination of yellow fever in both Cuba, Panamá and the United States. Walter Reed took credit for Finlay’s discovery, but that disgrace was eventually straightened out.

It is very rare to find any of Finlay’s papers available to read, whether in English or Spanish. That Cubans have allowed this neglect to happen speaks volumes as to the incurable ineptitude of Cubans as well as their utter disregard for science.

 

 

Armando Simón is the author of When Evolution Stops.