I think I expected a 'how to poison' book here, but what I got was infinitely more fascinating...I got the history of poisons in the early 20th century, the birth and growing pains of the science of medical forensics, and the profiles of two amazing public servants whose passion for the truth cre...
The title "Ghost Hunters" doesn't do this book justice, as it brings to mind the modern crop of sloppy so-called investigators who scare themselves for television audiences. This book is hardier stuff, chronicling scientists of the late 1800s and early 1900s, many with stellar credentials and acc...
CARBON MONOXIDE 224: a dusty little store that never seemed to open . . . : This description is based on a photo published in the New York Daily News in 1933 and reprinted in Simon Read, On the House: The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy (New York: Berkley Books, 2005). Read’s book provided back...
Harry F. Harlow, “The Gruesome Twosomes,” undated ALREADY A FEW OTHER REBELLIOUS scientists were arguing that love and intelligence could be connected, literally, from dot to dot. These were not animal researchers but doctors and psychologists working directly with children in orphanages and f...
In the summer of 1999, he developed mysterious rashes on his hands, arms, and legs. He visited a doctor, who gave him a variety of ointments, but they did nothing. He grew weak, lost weight. He had trouble seeing. No longer able to earn a living, he moved into his parents’ house in central Califo...