• The Invention of Rosalind Franklin

    These days it is hard to avoid seeing references to Rosalind Franklin whenever DNA is mentioned. In earlier and saner times she might have been mentioned in passing, as someone who made some worthwhile technical contributions. We all know that James Watson and Francis Crick first figured out the structure of DNA in 1953. Franklin…

  • J. Robert Oppenheimer Considered Insecure

    J. Robert Oppenheimer certainly perjured himself and may well have been a Soviet agent for some period of time.

  • Erasmus Darwin without Francis Galton

    Erasmus Darwin is an interesting character. R.A. Fisher thought highly of him. But claiming that he invented a rocket engine on the basis of a vague, un-captioned doodle in his commonplace book is unwise. Desmond King-Hele has made a lot of far-fetched claims of that kind. They will backfire, like rockets do. Or injure the…