Why read A Dominant Character?

Book cover of A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane

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J. B. S. Haldane's life was rich and strange, never short on genius or drama-from his boyhood apprenticeship to his scientist father, who first instilled in him a devotion to the scientific method; to his time in the trenches during the First World War, where he wrote his first scientific…

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1 author picked A Dominant Character as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

William De Jong Lambert

Author

Haldane was not only one of the three founders of the field of biostatistics but was notorious for his support of Lysenko as well. In fact, the story of Haldane’s supposed advocacy of Lysenkoism is much richer and more complicated than it would seem—in the end, it was more a feature of his instinct for contrarianism, inclination to doubt what others assumed to be common sense, and faith that “the universe is not only queererer than we suppose but queerer than we can suppose.”

Haldane is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of science, and his role…

From William's list on The best books on the history of modern science.