From a New York Times bestselling author comes the gripping, untold
history of science's darkest secrets, "a fascinating book [that]
deserves a wide audience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Science is a force for good in the world--at least usually. But
sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a
noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn't
everything, it's the only thing--no matter the cost. Bestselling author
Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition
pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of
science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the
process.
The Icepick Surgeon masterfully guides the reader across two thousand
years of history, beginning with Cleopatra's dark deeds in ancient
Egypt. The book reveals the origins of much of modern science in the
transatlantic slave trade of the 1700s, as well as Thomas Edison's
mercenary support of the electric chair and the warped logic of the
spies who infiltrated the Manhattan Project. But the sins of science
aren't all safely buried in the past. Many of them, Kean reminds us,
still affect us today. We can draw direct lines from the medical abuses
of Tuskegee and Nazi Germany to current vaccine hesitancy, and connect
icepick lobotomies from the 1950s to the contemporary failings of
mental-health care. Kean even takes us into the future, when advanced
computers and genetic engineering could unleash whole new ways to do one
another wrong.
Unflinching, and exhilarating to the last page, The Icepick Surgeon
fuses the drama of scientific discovery with the illicit thrill of a
true-crime tale. With his trademark wit and precision, Kean shows that,
while science has done more good than harm in the world, rogue
scientists do exist, and when we sacrifice morals for progress, we often
end up with neither.
