A Rum Affair (Allen Lane Science) Book

Take a garrulous old university professor with a knack of making extraordinary (and highly suspicious) botanical discoveries, a scientific community becoming increasingly sceptical of his claims, and an amateur botanist keen to find out the truth, and the stage is set for a highly absorbing tale of scientific chicanery and academic intrigue. Professor John Heslop Harrison of Newcastle University was one of the most respected and knowledgeable botanists of the first half of the 20th century. His greatest passion was for the plants of the Hebridean islands off the west coast of Scotland. He came to believe that some of the islands' plants were survivors from a time before the last Ice Age, a theory bound to be controversial given that the last advance of the ice sheets extended well south of mainland Scotland. In support of his theory Heslop Harrison began to report sightings of plants that no one had ever seen on the islands before, and the botanical community started to get suspicious. Were the plants really where Heslop Harrison claimed they were? If so, how did they get there? Could they really have survived on the islands since the last interglacial? Or had the wily old professor carried the specimens to the Hebrides from their sites of origin and planted them? Karl Sabbagh relates the shady tale of John Heslop Harrison in his highly engaging book A Rum Affair ("Rum" is the name of the Hebridean island where Harrison made many of his most extraordinary and suspicious discoveries). Sabbagh unpicks the thoughts, actions and motivation of both Harrison and his academic enemies with great aplomb, and goes on to explore how some scientists are driven to the belief that fakery can be in the interest of science. Sabbagh's writing style is sometimes dry and detailed as befits the treatment of a rather touchy subject, but the book is also laced with absorbing anecdotes and wry humour. A winner in a popular history of science genre that is becoming rather overpopulated these days. --Chris LaversRead More