Bedeviled

Bedeviled admirably insists on recording the plain history of science. It just so happens that the history of that most rational of human endeavors reads at times like a Gothic tale, one replete with evil geniuses, time travelers and uncanny intelligences lurking in reality's obscure corners. ---Jess Keiser, Washington Post Thought-provoking and highly readable . . . A welcome contribution to the philosophy of scientific discovery that deserves further scholarly attention. ---Jan G. Michel, Science A brilliant, challenging overview of the myth-driven scientific endeavors that transform human understandings of the world. * Foreword Reviews * The workings of powerful computers, the processes of evolution, the market forces that drive the global economy. To conceptualize such unseen forces, researchers have long invoked thought experiments involving demons, devils, golems or genies . . . Canales has given us a glimpse into this haunted realm. ---Ramin Skibba, Nature At the very same time that science was said to be demystifying the world, Canales shows us, scientists were populating it all over again with the demonic. . . . [Canales] links her demonology to what she calls 'the audacity of our imagination,' our ability to imagine what does not yet exist or seems as if it cannot be real. ---Casey Cep, New Yorker In this fascinating and informative book Canales treats the reader to a rich feast of scientific demons, tracing their histories and relevance from atomic and molecular physics to computer science and biology, including a chapter on demons in the global economy. ---V. V. Raman, Choice A welcome, in-depth historical investigation of the many functions that demons have played and continue to play in science and technology. ---Rawad El Skaf, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences