Everything’s Relative by Tony Rothman, John Wiley, $24.95/£17.50, ISBN 0471202576 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
THE subtitle of Tony Rothman’s book is a portent of what’s to come: “And other fables from science and technology”. In his preface he lists some axioms that are more warnings, such as, “He who hath gets” and, “Somebody else always does it first”. And then you are off into well-researched demolition of favourite stories always quoted in histories of science and its applications. There is no evidence at all that Galileo dropped weights from the leaning tower of Pisa to prove that all objects fall at the same rate. The common story that J. J. Thomson discovered the electron is far from the complicated truth. Samuel Morse did not invent the electric telegraph.
There are so many cherished myths and semi-myths, contemplating all the rewriting that’s needed of the story of the ascent of science and technology makes the head spin. Rescue comes with the realisation that the myths will prove far stronger than the truth.
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Rothman writes in an easy style, sometimes touching the colloquial and occasionally jarring. He also has a satirical bent: you might be puzzled by RASEP, but it is an acronym for Result Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Publicity. An uncomfortable book, but enthralling.