The scariest part about this book is that it teaches what we already know, but we fail to comprehend that its not old history, but local status quo.
A complete read of historical science. Mario Livio thoroughly describes the personal and scientific lives of Darwin, Kelvin, Pauling, Hoyle and Einstein, among several other Nobel prize winners and scientists altogether. It involves reads on cosmology, chemistry, biology, astrophysics and quantum theory.
The book can be a harsh read at times, but fully documents history with pictures and written correspondence. Mario Livio takes a personal stance in why and how these geniuses failed in their line of work, which becomes a very interesting read.
Above all, the book teaches eager scientists to remain humble and find relevance in their work, as is well pointed out that scientific truths morph over time, despite their correctness to a given state-of-the-art.
I felt the same attraction to this book that Louis felt to the woods. Funny, isn't it?