Play Book Tag discussion

Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul A. Offit
4 stars
***Audible***

I love science books! This was such a good one, super interesting and I learned a ton. I'm going to re-think what I hear about products and things going forward. As the author states in the book, adhere to the data. Why ignore 9,000 pages fo research and data to let a book that is light on science cause you to make a decision about banning an insecticide that saved millions upon millions of people.

There were some portions of the book that were incredibly difficult to listen to. One of the chapters was the mistake of believing the lobotomies were good. Listening to how a man that wasn't trained in surgery was hammering an ice pick into people's skulls and then swirling it around was disturbing.

The book also covered Eugenics and what was fascinating to me was Madison Grant who started the 'Save the Redwoods League', one of the most successful conservation movements. On the flip side, he wrote 'The Passing of the Great Race' which was heavily plagiarized by Hitler while he wrote Mein Kampf. Grant had a similar belief system as Hitler but Grant was here in the US and believed in heavy immigration restrictions. Because of him several restrictive immigration laws were passed during 1921-1924 which caused a drastic reduction in immigrants in the years that followed (this was compounded by the Great Depression and the war).

Another chapter talked about Silent Spring and Rachel Carson and her impacts on environmentalism. Because of her, the EPA and several other entities now exist.

I could go on and on about this book. I thought it was so good and so many smart lessons in it.

Great review, Charlotte! I enjoy reading about science, too. I'm glad to hear this one is so good since I own a copy and will get to it at some point

This sounds so great!! I am adding it to my TBR!