Why read The Nobel Duel?

Book cover of The Nobel Duel: Two Scientists' 21-Year Race to Win the World's Most Coveted Research Prize

Book description

Describes the long rivalry between two research scientists to win the Nobel Prize for chemistry

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Nobel Duel as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Michael Strevens

Author

Of course I love an exposé, heavily seasoned with gossip. Wade’s book tells the story of a race between two teams of scientists to discover the structure of an important brain hormone.

The reality of science is laid out in all its guts and glory: each team leader’s vaulting ambition to win the race, the complicated, error-prone nature of scientific research, and the tremendous and tedious effort involved from day to day—one of the team leaders later estimated he had processed 100,000 pig brains, just to extract enough of the vital substance to run through a testing regime.

In a…

From Michael's list on The best books that show how science really works.