This is the story of some scientific blunders: not fraud, but tragic self-deception by the scientist concerned. Blondlot's N-Rays, Lysenko, Nazi eugenics, polywater, animal magnetism, cold fusion.... Gratzer, a biophysicist by trade, examines case by case the way in which, as he puts it, "the triumph of desire over reason" leads honest men and women, some of them well-regarded and distinguished already, to go that step too far and court disproof, ridicule and disaster.

The reasons are various: envy, patriotism, prejudice, fear, peer and political pressure and many more. Sometimes, rarely, good comes of evil: the Nazi obsession with race and descent meant effort and money diverted from the war effort, and may have made just the difference between victory and defeat. But in general, Gratzer eschews judgement in favour of objective reporting, even though, on occasion, exasperation does creep into his tone: hindsight is a wonderful thing. A series of fascinating cautionary tales.... 328pp. paperback; many b/w illustrations and figures in text; index; bibliography