Drinking vomit. Breathing poisonous gasses. Creating two headed dogs. These mad acts aren't just the stuff gross out stories and horror movies. They are real things that real scientists have done in the search for scientific answers.

"For more than half a century, physicists and astronomers engaged in heated dispute over the possibility of black holes in the universe. The weirdly alien notion of a space-time abyss from which nothing escapes--not even light--seemed to confound all logic. This engrossing book tells the story of the fierce black hole debates and the contributions of Einstein and Hawking and other leading thinkers who completely altered our view of the universe. Renowned...

The origins behind some of the most important scientific discoveries are explored.

"The pursuit of science by professional scientists every day bears less and less resemblance to the perception of science by the general public. It is not the rule-based, methodical system for accumulating facts that dominates the public view. Rather it is the idiosyncratic, often bumbling search for understanding in mostly uncharted places. It is full of wrong turns, cul-de-sacs, mistaken identities, false findings, errors of fact and judgment-and...

A collection of essays containing 42 tales of chemists and their discoveries from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.