Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong

This book was disappointing. It's also factually misleading. The first couple chapters I didn't have any particular qualms with, Fritz Haber's demise, good fats vs bad fats, etc, the misleading white paper that led to the Opioid crisis. However, the chapter about DDT felt like a Rachel Carson hit piece. The tone was so specifically angry it felt completely out of place in a pop science book. And then to quote Michael Crichton of all people in this chapter. Michael Crichton, known hater of science and liberal ideology. Woof.

As a person who just graduated college with a biology degree this was an interesting book to read. To me it amazed me how willing some scientists and people were to a catch-all diagnosis and tag lines. I feel that the saying “if it's too good to be true, it probably is” applies to many of these experiments that went wrong. Reading this book has emphasized to me how important reproducibility and peer-reviewing articles are. I am glad that I read this book right before I start my career in the biology/chemistry field. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in science and even reading for the interest of knowing which seven experiments Dr. Offit talks about.

I try not to be such a judgmental person when it comes to the things I read, and most of the time I'm not. But this book really tested my ability to “forgive and forget” because of one line in the first chapter, about “Sumerian” gods that weren't really Sumerian. That got my hackles up because, come on, the gods named were patently NOT Sumerian, and it was clear someone didn't do a good-enough fact-check, or was too lazy to do one - which annoyed me even more because as a Literature major, mythology is kind of my jam (it is more than just “kind of” my jam, but that's another story for another time), and it grates on me when a nonfic book about SCIENCE, of all things, which is BUILT on rigorous fact-checking, doesn't get this one thing right.

But aside from that, and aside from the fact that the first chapter really isn't as engaging as everything else (this has nothing to do with that mythological faux pas), this book is actually fun to read. Offit has an engaging narrative style, and his ability to weave together the strands of history, science, and current events is pretty fun to read. This book is also an important reminder to all of us that we should always, ALWAYS be skeptical of everything - yes, even science: an important lesson in this day and age, where the word “science” is increasingly more like a branding strategy than treated as the rigorous discipline it actually is.