Where the Truth Lies
Where the Truth Lies
$57.00
USDWhere the Truth Lies is an absorbing account of a case of suspected fraud involving the tragic career of the molecular biologist Franz Moewus that illustrates all that can go wrong in scientific knowledge-making. Jan Sapp follows Moewus' meteoric flight among the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, to his denunciation as the perpetrator of one of the most ambitious cases of fraud in the history of science. The author reopens the case not to vindicate Moewus, but to show the lessons that the controversy reveals to the scientist. Professor Sapp demonstrates how what counts as evidence is negotiated in science, and reveals the difficulties scientists face in objectively testing the validity of their results. The author emphasizes the creative nature of science, the rhetorical nature of scientific reports, and the fictitious elements inherent in the construction and maintenance of scientific knowledge-making and knowledge-breaking claims.
Reviews & endorsements
"Sapp gives a fascinating account of the controversy surrounding Frank Moewus' work and contributions to molecular biology....An outstanding commentary on the enigmatic, tragic life and person of Frank Moewus." Choice
"...a valuable critical review of the literature on scientific fraud..." Science
"The book does a superb job of unraveling the complexities inherent in assessing the validity of Moewus's work and its place in the history of life science....an important contribution to the history and philosophy of life science and a valuable addition to the studies of the social construction of scientific knowledge." Lily E. Kay, Isis
Product details
June 1990Paperback
9780521367516
352 pages
228 × 152 × 18 mm
0.46kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Is science fiction?
- 2. Founding father fables: myth making in the history of genetics
- 3. Sex and the simple organism: the 'real' origin of molecular genetics?
- 4. Too good to be true and too true to be dismissed
- 5. Mendel revisited: are all genetic reports faked?
- 6. War crimes: gossip about Moewus and the failure of replication
- 7. Fostering a new generation of geneticists
- 8. Raising the stakes: a Nobel Prize for Moewus?
- 9. Big biology and the politics of the Rockefeller Foundation
- 10. Great expectations: Moewus abroad
- 11. The Woods Hole trials.
