Nice interview with Mark Lynch today about different aspects of the book. He says it’s something he has always wondered about it, and is thrilled to find a book which takes about what it is like to do science in detail.
full interview: WICN podcasts
I am greatly encouraged by a strongly supportive review from Harry Collins in the Times Higher Education (here), which chooses it as their book of the week. Harry is an eminent social scientist who I have followed for a number of years, because he is interested in how science is done. However since he studies what was until recently an esoteric backwater (gravitational wave detection), I have disagreed on much of the general applicability of his work. However we certainly agree on the need to look at how science is actually done!
You can see the full thing here: THES
Great to see that also the review in Science really likes the book.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2018/07/17/the-secret-life-of-science/
Some interesting comments about wanting more details on solutions to the current state of science – readers really want to know how I might change everything, but I the route to that is first collective thought about what we do. Being prescriptive is not a way forward that is possible.
Clive Cookson at the FT recommends the Secret Life of Science as one of his choice reads for the summer, see FT, saying it “fills the gap beautifully” in discussing the whole science enterprise.