“The most impressive feature of [this book] is how much [the author] admits he didn't know. He's constantly talking about papers he couldn't understand and important concepts he didn't grasp.
Who recommended this book
“Brian Cox's Book Recommendations (updated 2025) | Good Books
“[For people on my career path, I'd recommend] biographies of people who have ‘built skyscrapers’ (my term); for example: [...]
“I read this quite a long time ago but I remember it being an interesting account of what science looks like from the trenches. The struggles, uncertainty, the thrill of the race with other labs. It also paints a realistic picture of discoveries: it's not one sudden eureka moment that changes everything but a process of gradual narrowing down of the truth with a sequence of smaller eureka moments in between. 4/5
Walter Isaacson
Biographer of Steve Jobs and Da Vinci