Reviewed by Mike Bucci
High School Teacher
Eureka! A book that is a pleasure to read, and educational, too! This collection of mini-biographies will provide middle and high school students with a sense of the process of science, along with an appreciation of the role of chance in so many discoveries. Students will note the role of good academic preparation, because as Pasteur said: “Chance favors only the prepared mind.”
My favorite example from the book is the story of Alexander Fleming’s discovery of the therapeutic value of penicillin. Fleming left London to go on holiday, failing to store his staphylococci in incubators. The lab’s windows were impossible to open, so Fleming usually left the door open for circulation. The door opened to a set of stairs. One flight down, a mycologist was working on a strain of mold in a lab that lacked a fume hood.
The spores drifted into Fleming's lab. An unusual cold spell that summer, followed by a return to normal summer temperatures, helped the spores to flourish on the petri dishes. When Fleming returned, he began throwing away the contaminated cultures. This lab had shallow trays with a little antiseptic for disposal, instead of deep buckets filled with antiseptic. It was only as he was throwing the dishes away that Fleming observed the clear halo surrounding the contamination.
Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs that Changed the World will let your students share in historical scientific debates, and connect political and social events to progress in science. The discovery process is given life, as are the dreams of the discoverer. Students will be fascinated by stories of Priestley, Kekule, Mendeleyev, the truth about Newton’s apple, Einstein, Townes, Wegener, Darwin, Crick and Watson, and Mandelbrot. There is no bibliography of sources cited, but there is an index and a list of recommended readings. This book is a good one to share with your students who have a leaning towards science.
Review posted on 10/8/2002
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