Summary Of Brilliant Blunders By Mario Livio

Throughout the years, the human race has made several large advances in science. But, these advances did not come about without a few mistakes along the way. In the book, Brilliant Blunders by Mario Livio, several brilliant scientists’ mistakes are addresses and discussed. Livio focuses on the blunders made by Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein, who were all infamous in the science world. Each of these masterminds have made crucial discoveries in science. It is not only important to address these blunders, but also to address the effects they have had on scientific advances. This notable book has unveiled the truth to many scientists journey to success. Mario Livio, a notorious astrophysicist and author,

Pauling was known for his work with molecules and models. Pauling played a massive part in the race to the double helix. While trying to create a model of DNA, Pauling accidently messed up the chemistry of the nucleic acid. Watson and Crick were able to detect this mistake and it launched them forward towards the first correct model of DNA. His blunder may not have been exactly brilliant, but his methods and work with protein molecules helped create the double helix. Though Pauling was a great chemist, his overconfidence led him astray. The next important scientist was Fred Hoyle, who was an astrophysicist and cosmologist. Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” and was a big critic of theory. He strongly believed in the world being in a “steady state.” This meant that he believe in the earth being created by a higher being, and staying unchanging. This is where Hoyle made his mistake. It was later proven that the world is, in fact, changing and the universe is expanding. This expansion was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope was given credit for measuring the distance of the galaxies and creating an expansion rate of 3 miles per second. Radio astronomy was also used to oppose the steady state model. Despite all of the evidence, Hoyle refused to accept to depart with the steady state model. The final scientist covered in “Brilliant Blunders” was the legendary Albert Einstein, who happened to make one of the biggest blunders. Einstein was attempting to understand the evolution of the universe, using his general relativity equations. At first, Einstein had also believed that the world was unchanging. He created a cosmic repulsive force that would balance gravity. With the several scientific discoveries against a static universe, Einstein realized and accepted his mistake. A cosmic repulsive force against gravity would not exist in an expanding universe. All five of the scientists