Subject matter is disturbing.

It is very typical of the human nature to see things like this continually happening. Power, money, greed, influence. Enjoyed this read a lot.

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Fantastic!

Highly informative, well written and absolutely loved the moments of humour! I highly recommend this book to anyone who makes decisions for others!

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Lessons to use science better

Well explained stories of how people did the wrong thing by not using science properly. Gives details on key individuals, how society suffered as a result, and how we might be able to prevent it happening again.

Took one star off because the focus is almost entirely on the Western world, even when the story affected other countries. Though that may be the difficulty for the author to access those details.

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It opened my eyes

Wow what an eye opening book, who knew the truth behind so many disasters of drugs and peoples influence on many bad outcomes.
Very enjoyable but a little bit scary of what has happed behind our backs.

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Very interesting

Super interesting stuff ups in science from geniuses and egomaniacs. Food for thought ensues

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A fascinating look at the other side of science.

A great peek behind the curtains at scientific discoveries that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Well written and very well performed.

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Needs different subtitle

It was really interesting and I learnt so much, but I think the subtitle is wrong. Science hadn’t gone wrong, it either produced unexpected results or was used for bad.

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Essential listeing

For those who are curious, for those who are still in school, for philosophy students and the general public alike...

This book is about the human race and our relentless desire to learn things (sometimes to our own detriment) to advance humanity further.

It is also about tragic mistakes, huge egos and the importance of knowing your history, so the mistakes of the past can't be repeated.

Highly recommend.

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Fascinating read

Loved it. Such interesting examples of science gone wrong, headlines over facts, bias, & the lessons to be learned in each case. As a doctor, who likes to reassess her own biases, & view data / news headlines with a degree of scepticism, I really enjoyed this book.

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Ideology of Author bit off

Great history of events and well written. But I cringe everytime the author gives his morale conclusions, especially in the Haber chapter. It's as if he thinks the cost of ammonia production was too high. That is how science works, solve a problem and sometimes generate new ones, but you repeat the process to solve those. He tried to cloud this great discovery by detailing Habers contribution to weapons of war. But that is irrelevant. Sure complain about fertilizer practices and efforts to protect the environment. But don't lead the audience to think we were better off not manufacturing ammonia, which would be impossible anyway, if not Haber someone else in short order would have done it. Generally scientists are the first to identify the trade offs and non-scientists to ignore them for profit. Your attempt to portray the scientist as the villian is inaccurate. Michael (PhD chemistry, industrial chemist in fertiliser manufacture).

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