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The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

Sam Kean

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 4,338 ratings · 599 reviews

Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, “a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when ob Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, “a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process.

The Icepick Surgeon masterfully guides the reader across two thousand years of history, beginning with Cleopatra’s dark deeds in ancient Egypt. The book reveals the origins of much of modern science in the transatlantic slave trade of the 1700s, as well as Thomas Edison’s mercenary support of the electric chair and the warped logic of the spies who infiltrated the Manhattan Project. But the sins of science aren’t all safely buried in the past. Many of them, Kean reminds us, still affect us today. We can draw direct lines from the medical abuses of Tuskegee and Nazi Germany to current vaccine hesitancy, and connect icepick lobotomies from the 1950s to the contemporary failings of mental-health care. Kean even takes us into the future, when advanced computers and genetic engineering could unleash whole new ways to do one another wrong.

Unflinching, and exhilarating to the last page, The Icepick Surgeon fuses the drama of scientific discovery with the illicit thrill of a true-crime tale. With his trademark wit and precision, Kean shows that, while science has done more good than harm in the world, rogue scientists do exist, and when we sacrifice morals for progress, we often end up with neither. ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Published July 13th 2021 by Little, Brown and Company

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Start your review of The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

Sep 28, 2021 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, historical-nonfiction, science, non-fiction

A good non-fiction book of horrors for October! Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:

"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character." - Albert Einstein

Sam Kean is my favorite pop science author, ever since I read Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us in 2017. Kean has an engaging voice, a solid understanding of science, and a talent for telling stories, making complex subjects both intelligible and interesting to non-scientific readers (tellingly, he studied both physics and English literature). In his latest book, The Icepick Surgeon, Kean turns his attention to the many ways in which science has been twisted to sinister and even evil purposes over the centuries. Each chapter focuses on a different era in history and a different type of corrupted science. The perpetrators of these crimes range from well-meaning though woefully misguided people to those blinded by the quest for wealth or fame to deliberately malicious actors.

The first chapter is set in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when English biologist and naturalist William Dampier took to the sea. He was a brilliant navigator and at one point piloted the ship that rescued a marooned sailor, Alexander Selkirk, whose story in part inspired Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. But his passion for exploring the biology and natural history of other lands, along with a desire to be rich, also led him to join some sailing crews that were shady privateers or even outright pirates, and Kean notes that there’s no reason to think Dampier stood aloof from looting and murdering natives and sailors on other ships.

From piracy it’s a natural though disturbing step to slavery, the topic of Chapter 2, in which we follow the exploits of British naturalist Henry Smeathman in the later 1700s. Smeathman initially abhorred the slavery trade (though not enough to stay off of slave ships traveling to the far-off countries he wanted to study). But eventually he began socializing with the slave ship captains and merchants, and finally engaged in slave-trading himself as, he told himself and others, a matter of economic necessity.

And so it goes. Some of the stories Kean relates in The Icepick Surgeon are easy to predict: Nazi tortures in the name of science, of course, and grave-robbing to produce human bodies for medical study … which occasionally led overly ambitious grave robbers to become murderers. There’s also Walter Freeman’s practice of lobotomizing mentally ill individuals on a massive scale in the 1940s, when he traveled across the U.S.A. from asylum to asylum on lobotomy road trips: the “icepick surgeon” of the book’s title. Other chapters have more surprising topics, like Chapter 6, devoted to the sabotage and stealing between two rival dinosaur fossil hunters in the late 1800s. That chapter, like the later one about some of the American spies who stole nuclear science secrets for other countries in the post-WWII years, made for fascinating reading and weren’t too gut-wrenching.

But it was difficult to read about animal torture (Thomas Edison, for one, when he was exploring the differences between direct and alternating electric currents), innocent people infected — often deliberately — with terrible diseases that were left untreated in the name of science, Nazi atrocities, and the torturous psychological experiments that helped form teenaged Theodore Kaczynski into the Unabomber. It’s worth reading because it’s true (by and large; Kean does indulge in the occasional speculation) but so many of these stories are harrowing and tragic. At the same time, as the author points out, we do need to consider where and why humans have gone down the wrong path and what can be done to help prevent these types of misdeeds from happening again. Some of the historical abuses this book chronicles may be unlikely to recur, but, as the appendix chapter discusses, technology opens up all sorts of new avenues for bad behavior and abuses of scientific knowledge.

The Icepick Surgeon is a sobering book but a fascinating one, and, more importantly, a needed record of scientific misconduct, both historically and in our modern time.

Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy! ...more

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Aug 18, 2021 Sean Gibson rated it it was amazing

I received a review copy from the publisher. This did not affect my review, and what follows is my unvarnished and honest perspective.

Well, there goes Sam Kean doing Sam Kean things again. For those unfamiliar, Kean’s books generally go like this: take a scientific element (e.g., the periodic table, genetics, the brain), stir in a plethora of sometimes seemingly disconnected anecdotes, case studies, and episodes of historical significance that ultimately bake up into a pretty deliciously coheren I received a review copy from the publisher. This did not affect my review, and what follows is my unvarnished and honest perspective.

Well, there goes Sam Kean doing Sam Kean things again. For those unfamiliar, Kean’s books generally go like this: take a scientific element (e.g., the periodic table, genetics, the brain), stir in a plethora of sometimes seemingly disconnected anecdotes, case studies, and episodes of historical significance that ultimately bake up into a pretty deliciously coherent cake, add a generous dollop of dad jokes and, boom, Bob’s your uncle—you’ve got a pretty great read that will make you an unstoppable conversational force at the next party you attend (well, back when parties were things we attended).

Kean’s last book, The Bastard Brigade, deviated from that formula, though he mostly returns to it, albeit painting on a broader palette, with Icepick Surgeon. Instead of a particular focal point within the scientific realm, however, he surveys the profession of science as a whole for instances of individuals prioritizing science, discovery, or fame, fortune, and notoriety over ethics and rigorous (albeit often tedious) data collection.

Needless to say, things can get a little dark. I mean, what else do you expect when you’ve got the “Johnny Appleseed of psychosurgery” running about hither, thither, and yon, lobotomizing people with cheerfully reckless abandon, lopping off pieces of brain like an enthusiastic new homeowner attacking a problematic hedge with top-of-the-line garden shears. Toss in grave robbers disinterring fresh corpses for greedy doctors; Nazis; torture; the Tuskegee Study; and the psychological battering of a timid gent by the name of Ted Kaczynski (perhaps you’ve heard of him?) and you’ve got quite the mix of scoundrels, ne’er-do-wells, and unethical boundary pushers.

Confession: coming off such an exceedingly dark and challenging 18 months (I split a pair of pants, lost my lucky quarter, got a pretty mean papercut…oh, and there’s that whole global pandemic thing, racial injustice, environmental catastrophes, and murder hornets), this was a heavier read than I was hoping for (if you want something quite literally lighter, check out Kean’s incandescently brilliant Caesar’s Last Breath). Still, Kean deftly navigates some of the book’s most morally thorny quandaries and, as always, there is more interesting and engaging information packed in here than an entire set of encyclopedias (dating myself much*?).

This is an extremely worthy addition to your “interesting books on sinister topics” bookshelf. And if you don’t have one of those, you really should.

*Sometimes you have to date yourself because no one else will ...more

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Aug 26, 2022 Holly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2022-read, audiobook, non-fiction

3.5 stars

This was an interesting telling of several historical scientific figures who did horrific things usually under the guise of 'progressing science'. This book covers a lot of ground and I was really interested by each scientist who went terribly wrong in very different ways.

I rated it 3.5 stars instead of 4 stars only because there are SEVERAL times where the author refers you to find out more information by listening to his podcast or going to his website, which annoyed me. But other th ...more

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Sep 25, 2021 Jill Hutchinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: medicine, non-fiction

Being a member of the medical community, this book was especially interesting to me even though I was aware of some of the medical "treatments" that have taken place over the years. The author approaches the subject as a study in medical ethics and how some physician/scientists ignored the humane aspects of procedures to prove their beliefs.

I will not list all the incidents that were included in the book but give the reader an idea of the horrors that, for the most part, led nowhere in addressin ...more

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Jan 23, 2022 Tom Quinn rated it really liked it

Just plain historiotrivial fun. I laughed some and I learned some.

3.5 stars - excellent breezy weekend reading, but did we need a plug for the author's podcast in 12% of the footnotes? (I kept track. They're that obnoxious.) ...more

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Aug 20, 2021 Montzalee Wittmann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Remarkable and intriguing!

The Icepick Surgeon
By Sam Kean

This book is so fascinating! It has such incredible stories of how science has been used without any sort of morality or conscious. Many would be a war crime if preformed now! Some of these stories I had heard about before but this gives a lot more tidbits.
It starts with Cleopatra and her experiments on people and on up. Very eye opening! I was never bored that's for sure! If you like science and history or the bizarre, pick this up! I got ...more

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Jun 09, 2021 Chantel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: livres-audio, non-fiction, la-science, littérature-états-unis, netgalley, 2000s

There is a chapter in this book which explores a non-Indigenous person's experiences with a tribe & though the information was pertinent & relevant to the story, the terminology was not. I understand that when speaking (or writing) about specific programs, documents or ideals which pertained to the time in which segments take place, terminology will often be dated.

However, Kean often called Indigenous peoples 'Indians' & it was not necessary to do so. I actually thought he was introducing a seg There is a chapter in this book which explores a non-Indigenous person's experiences with a tribe & though the information was pertinent & relevant to the story, the terminology was not. I understand that when speaking (or writing) about specific programs, documents or ideals which pertained to the time in which segments take place, terminology will often be dated.

However, Kean often called Indigenous peoples 'Indians' & it was not necessary to do so. I actually thought he was introducing a segment regarding India when this chapter explored this part because I couldn't wrap my head around a non-Indigenous person thinking, in 2021, that using the derogatory 'Indian' was an okay thing to do. It's not.

I highlight that when Kean was utilizing direct quotes, document names, programs & legislature of the time; I am acknowledging the time & place in which these were relevant & in keeping the authenticity of those titles, Kean was right to not change them. However, when continuing on with the text/thought Kean should very much have changed the indicator to one of many which are acceptable today (i.e. Aboriginal, Indigenous, etc.).

For this reason, I was left feeling a bit bizarrely about the entire book. I cannot speak to personal experience for many of the other themes & segments explored & therefore felt that as I had caught an inappropriate piece in the book, perhaps someone else had noted something else, something I was not versed on. I lost my trust in the author.

These points aside, this book was fascinating & an easy audiobook to get through. Ben Sullivan did an absolutely stellar job at narrating & I attribute the flow of the whole story to his ability to capture the entirety of the segments.

Some other people have noted their displeasure that Kean ends segments with links to his podcast & I would have to agree with them. I would find myself engrossed in the information only to have myself jolted out of the story by the encouragement to 'find out more' in an episode of Kean's podcast. Perhaps had he left a footnote or included these at the end of the book I might not have minded.

All in all, a decent read & I did appreciate the narrative covered.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, & Sam Kean for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ...more

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Jun 08, 2021 Valerity (Val) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, non-fiction, 2021, true-crime, history, science, medicine, health

An easy to listen to story, narrated by the author, who has a pleasant reading voice. Filled with tales of scientists who crossed the line in their endeavors to further knowledge. It even calls out Cleopatra for being the first to do so, trying to determine the sex of unborn children. Some great stories in here. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Tom Clavin, and the publisher.

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Jul 26, 2021 Geoff rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, nonfiction, audio-book, arc, read-2021, sports, history, net-galley

The chapters in this book cover the wide range of unethical, illegal, and just plain evil things that have been done in the name of science (or in the name of using science for fame and money). They range from unethical experimentation (you've heard of the Nazi doctors, but have you heard of the US Public Health Service's Tuskegee and Guatemalan syphilis studies?), to grave robbing; murder (and the use of scientific skills to try to cover up) to animal electrification and execution; fraud (falsi ...more

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Nov 29, 2021 olivia rated it liked it

Shelves: great-audiobooks

fabulous concept with poor execution

I like the way this book was framed, and I especially appreciated that both sides of these scientific figures were explored, similar to how scientific papers qualify their findings with limitations. Overall, Sam Kean did an ok job with the discussion of ethics around these stories, but my biggest issue with the book is his use of inappropriate terminology like "indian" when discussion indigenous communities and "hooker" when discussing sex workers. Not to ment ...more

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Apr 04, 2022 Nicola Bramwell rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

[ Cross-posted to the Nicola Bramwell Blog ]

One of my favorite genres is historical nonfiction, and this book combined that interest with my second-favorite subgenre of nonfiction—science and medicine. The results were a bit of a mixed bag, however. I was anticipating a finely organized analysis of the various misdeeds and crimes of past scientists and doctors, and while I got the “various” part, the book was, in my opinion, lacking in the “organization” department.

Kean covers several of the [ Cross-posted to the Nicola Bramwell Blog ]

One of my favorite genres is historical nonfiction, and this book combined that interest with my second-favorite subgenre of nonfiction—science and medicine. The results were a bit of a mixed bag, however. I was anticipating a finely organized analysis of the various misdeeds and crimes of past scientists and doctors, and while I got the “various” part, the book was, in my opinion, lacking in the “organization” department.

Kean covers several of the major scientific and medical scandals from past centuries, everything from the Tuskegee Syphilis Study to Annie Dookhan’s falsification of thousands of laboratory drug tests. I hadn’t heard of some of these incidents or the people involved, so I was pleased to learn a lot of new names and the misconduct that each person committed so that I could file that information away in my mental historical record.

That said, Kean jumped around between so many different time periods and different types of science that the book as a whole felt very unfocused. On one page, I’d be reading about a guy who studied termites while making friends with slavers, and the next, I’d be reading about Thomas Edison electrocuting dogs. And sure, I like reading about a broad range of topics, but this felt like too many different topics for one single book.

I’ve read entire science history books on just the 1920s, so Kean’s persistent forward jumps through decades and centuries made me feel like I was getting a little bit of information about each time period but not nearly enough to satisfy my curiosity. Personally, I think I would’ve liked it more had this been book one of a series wherein Kean explores various scientific/medical scandals from different time periods, one time period per book. That way, each book would’ve given me a fuller picture of the historical context for each scandal.

Overall, I did enjoy the stories that Kean included in the book, but I just felt like there could’ve been so much more. So I give this book an “okay” rating. ...more

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Jun 09, 2021 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, netgalley

“Science is Simply the Word We Use to Describe a Method of Organizing Our Curiosity” … Tim Minchin.
Sam Kean tells us about some crazy people and the things they did in the name of science.
This was a audiobook and the narrator Ben Sullivan was great! He always does a good job.
I love history and this kept my interest all the way through. The author convincingly wrote about the horrors. I was shocked about the Nazi’s experiments and how we learned so much from them.
If you love history and crime ...more

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Jul 26, 2021 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, science

Morally dubious science is often ipso facto bad science - that morally dubious research is often scientifically dubious as well.

The Icepick Surgeon covers murder, fraud, sabotage, piracy, and other "dastardly deeds" perpetrated in the name of science. I found this book to be my favorite type of nonfiction science book. Short vingettes of biographies from a certain moment in a person's life focusing around a certain theme. Kean focused on different deeds individuals have used science throughout ...more

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Jun 15, 2021 Em Meurer (emcanread) rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, science, audiobooks, arc, true-crime

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
by Sam Kean
⚡️ I was provided an audio-ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Out 7/13)
TW: This book contains graphic descriptions of physical and psychological tourture, ableist language, and outdated and racist terms, along with the other crimes listed in the book’s subtitle
🌟: 3 / 5
📚: An exploration of the most despicable discoveries in medical researc The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
by Sam Kean
⚡️ I was provided an audio-ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (Out 7/13)
TW: This book contains graphic descriptions of physical and psychological tourture, ableist language, and outdated and racist terms, along with the other crimes listed in the book’s subtitle
🌟: 3 / 5
📚: An exploration of the most despicable discoveries in medical research, told through the doctors and scientists whose ambitions trumped the morals, ethics, and safety of the people that they were hoping to help.
💭: At its heart, the message that this book is trying to get across is that the ethics and human cost of research is something that we need to constantly need to evolve, scrutinize, and be conscious of. Kean uses true crime-style case studies to discuss the crimes that scientists have committed in the name of advancing our understanding of medicine. It’s extremely engaging storytelling and is written and narrated well, but there are many instances where readers are pulled out of the narrative for Kean to advertise his podcast (it’s on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! This chapter was episode 22!).

All of this being said, I had a lot of issues with the language chosen to represent these ideas. For a book that emphasizes learning from the downfalls of the past when it comes to creating a more humane and ethical future in medicine and medical research, the way that it’s spoken about is not as thoughtful when it comes to the word choices that Kean uses. At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was quoting a contemporary source and the audiobook made it sound like it wasn’t a quote. However, towards the end of the book, there were some distinctions made about word choices that one sources uses no longer being in use and all uses of them were paraphrased from a published case study on that topic, and that distinction on one word’s use made me genuinely angry about the previous word choices.

This paragraph refers to specific and potentially triggering words that the author used (view spoiler)

As with many books about medical history, I kept having to stop reading and walk away because the content of this book is so awful. Although it was written well for the content and does a good job of broaching the topic of why we need ethics in medicine to constantly be scrutinized, it was often just a lot to take in (some chapters more than others for sure). Unfortunately, the ethical issues that this book raises aren’t all completely over with. The penultimate case study focuses on the traumatic treatment of intersex, transgender, and queer youth who endure surgeries and therapies, often without consent. It’s hard to read and heartbreaking to consider, but occasionally felt like these issues were a part of the past like the other stories featured in this book. It’s very crucial to remember that ethical issues in medicine still exist and will continue to arise as science and our understanding of medicine evolves, and I think that the conclusion and afterword touch on this well; however, the fact that these aren’t addressed until after so many hard-to-read anecdotes troubles me for a couple of reasons. I wish that these considerations were more top-of-mind while reading and introduced as readers go into this book, and I worry that many readers will stop reading this book ahead of getting to these considerations, purely because of the nature of this book. ...more

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Oct 07, 2021 Ross Blocher rated it it was amazing

You had me at Sam Kean. If you enjoy science history, these are the books for you. Kean finds compelling stories and connects them to well-known figures, technologies, and everyday experience. In The Icepick Surgeon, Kean shares stories of "Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science". In the hands of a propagandist, this could easily be a screed about the moral failings of science. Kean presents something more subtle and compelling: a reminder t You had me at Sam Kean. If you enjoy science history, these are the books for you. Kean finds compelling stories and connects them to well-known figures, technologies, and everyday experience. In The Icepick Surgeon, Kean shares stories of "Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science". In the hands of a propagandist, this could easily be a screed about the moral failings of science. Kean presents something more subtle and compelling: a reminder that scientists indeed are humans. The full range of human experience will be reflected in the sciences, though it may express itself in surprising ways. Each chapter presents a new story highlighting a distinct category of misbehavior.

For example, I had never heard of William Dampier before, but this biologist-turned-pirate had a lasting impact on the world. He was the first Englishman to set foot in Australia, first to circumnavigate the globe thrice, and introduced terms like banana and papaya to the English language. Dampier figured out the source of winds and currents. He even coined the phrase "subspecies". He was influential to Charles Darwin, as well as an inspiration for Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. And yet, he was also a pirate who captured ships and raided settlements, and was eventually court-martialled for cruelty.

The second chapter explores various ways in which scientists went along with and benefited from the practice of slavery. Slave boats provided passage that may have been otherwise unattainable, and slaves were given thankless, often dangerous tasks without the recognition for their efforts and likely roles in discovery. Many museums are [still] filled with things stolen from slaves. Chapter 3 is about grave-robbing, and the figures (in addition to the famed Burke & Hare) who accelerated scientific access to corpses through duplicitous and often murderous means. Another chapter looks at animal cruelty in the form of electrocution during Edison and Tesla's competing circuit-design standoff. Elsewhere we get a fascinating look at the back-stabbing "Bone Wars" between dinosaur-popularizing paleontologists Marsh and Cope.

Kean also examines the breaking of doctorly oaths, and what we do with the results of miscarriages of science such as the Tuskeegee experiments, or Nazi experiments that were mostly useless as science, but sometimes contributed [still-used] information on topics such as cold tolerance. Kean describes an additional series of experiments in Guatemala that I'd never heard about before. While the Tuskeegee operators never actually infected participants with syphilis (they prevented the sufferers from knowing their diagnoses or accessing available cures), Dr. John Cutler actually did knowingly infect women in Guatemala with gonorrhea. In the chapter for which the book is named, icepick surgeon Walter Freeman blithely jabbed a metal pick into the eye cavities of thousands of people, scrambling their brains. Another fascinating chapter looks at the formational years of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, who was effectively tortured by his psychology professor at Harvard (Henry Murray). Oddly enough, that's not the only example of Harvard-adjacent murder in the book!

There are many more stories, and each provides human interest and a cautionary tale, along with surprising takeaways. Even when recounting stories that I'd read entire, dedicated books about, Kean offered new insights and connections I wasn't aware of. He takes obvious joy in sharing his research, and does an amazing job of culling the most interesting tidbits. That doesn't stop Kean from providing supplemental material on his website, and he points regularly to his podcast, which expounds on some of the topics introduced here. At the same time, Kean manages thoughtful and considerate handling of sensitive topics. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in science, psychology, history, or just being the nerdy life of the cocktail party. ...more

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Oct 14, 2021 Kirsti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biography, emotions, grief, philosophy, grudges, mayhem, 2021, deserves-the-hype, essays, medicine

I don't think I've ever made this recommendation before: If you don't have time to read the whole book, just read the appendix. It is a series of speculations on crime in the future.

• What will happen when there's a murder in outer space?
• What rights will space colonists demand—plentiful oxygen? video or audio entertainment? the right to contact people on Earth?
• What will happen when someone brings woolly mammoths out of extinction? What will happen when somebody brings Neanderthals out of ...more

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Mar 16, 2022 Nina The Wandering Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, audiobooks, non-fiction, true-crime, science, history

This was hella fascinating! Hopefully I'll come back and leave a more thorough review, but for now, all I can say is this spontaneous book purchase was so worth it! Definitely a book you read hungrily from the prologue to the appendix...(seriously...don't skip that prologue or appendix)! ...more

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Jun 30, 2022 Anna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humorous, historical-nonfiction, illustrated, 2021-booklist, scribd-library, read-in-2022, true-crime

I will never think of head-hunting the same way, ever again!

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Aug 15, 2021 Angus McKeogh rated it it was ok

Giving this one a just okay rating. It wasn’t terrible but I was coming in thinking it’d be amazing and deeply interesting. It ended up being marginal. Some of the “duplicitous scientific connections were pretty remote and stretched thin” and while the stories as noted by the titles sounded gripping they generally ended up being ho-hum.

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Nov 04, 2021 Lauren Stoolfire rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, history

The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean just happened to catch my eye at my library and I decided to take a chance on it. I'm glad I did because this was absolutely fascinating. It's very well researched and it pulls you right into the stories it has to tell, but it is absolutely terrifying in its own right and it doesn't look away from that aspect. ...more

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Aug 30, 2021 Krisette Spangler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

Wow, this had some hair raising stories. I couldn't believe some of the things that have been done in the name of science. It was interesting to read all of the stories, and I found the author's writing style to be engaging and sometimes humorous. ...more

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Nov 13, 2021 Lukasz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 2021, audiobook

A fascinating book about atrocities committed by scientists to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. The uncomfortable truth is their misdeeds moved the world forward. Not an easy read, quite terrifying in places, but worth attention.

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Aug 19, 2022 britt_brooke rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Picture a group of bookstore-hopping Nashville friends. It was time to leave Parnassus Books, and I couldn’t make a decision, so I panicked-grabbed this for the incredible cover. A solid decision. What an intriguing premise! Some stories were a bit lengthy and dry, but overall, this is a fascinating look into what compels humans to venture into ethical gray areas, and sometimes criminal territory, in the name of science.

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Mar 03, 2022 Stormie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Consistently interesting, but I could've done without the multiple podcast plugs. I'm already reading your book, dude. ...more

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Nov 15, 2021 Me, My Shelf, & I rated it did not like it

Shelves: white-male-author, 2021-releases, audiobook, non-fiction, 2021-read, books-that-make-me-rant, worst-of-2021

Man, I have an awful lot of issues with this as a scientific nonfiction.

First and foremost, my biggest gripe is that the title ends with "perpetrated in the name of science" when at best most of the stories can be boiled down to "perpetrated by scientists." There are tales of ego that hedge close to being about science but nothing about the crimes even tangentially pushes science forward, there's an inclusion on how bias can negatively impact scientific data and lead to a false conclusion but th Man, I have an awful lot of issues with this as a scientific nonfiction.

First and foremost, my biggest gripe is that the title ends with "perpetrated in the name of science" when at best most of the stories can be boiled down to "perpetrated by scientists." There are tales of ego that hedge close to being about science but nothing about the crimes even tangentially pushes science forward, there's an inclusion on how bias can negatively impact scientific data and lead to a false conclusion but that's more about the pursuit of science and less about the dastardly deeds to get there, there are conjectures that seem wildly unscientific and verge far too much into speculation (the Unabomber chapter in particular), there are stories of scientists tacitly supporting crime by funding it in their pursuit of science but the focus is more on Burke and Hare than the scientists at fault, etc etc. And finally there's a whole chapter at the end that's mostly on 'what if' space crimes which, again, aren't related to the pursuit of science at all.

-- The Unabomber chapter in particular, while certainly salacious and attention grabbing, has the least scientific rigor in presenting the case and is ultimately worth very little. While he occasionally has a caveat about how we can't jump to such and such conclusion, the manner in which it's laid out is poor and always points back to that conclusion, and there's many unsupported leaps along the way such as the idea that his family was dysfunctional because his parents were concerned that he couldn't form friendships as a child. The amount of issues I have with the conjecture and presentation in this chapter alone make me question the scientific rigor made in the rest of the book and cause me to doubt that I can accept anything the author is saying at face value: meaning that I can neither consider this book to be informative nor fun, making it a rather useless text.

My second major gripe is that the author says that we shouldn't judge people of the past by the ethical standards of today but rather judge them by the ethical standards of their day (chapter 7)... He later directly contradicts this on the chapter on animal cruelty in which he states that there were already many people protesting its use so we can judge them, I guess? But there's always a group protesting what is currently legal but they consider morally wrong (abolitionists existed before slavery is ended, yet he doesn't bring this up when talking about slavery and praises those men for being even 1% more progressive than their slavery-supporting counterparts).

The author seems to praise and aggrandize many of the men mentioned and has weird inclusions or asides that made me very uncomfortable. In the chapter on slavery he mentions how Smeathman, unlike many men of his time who only wanted "sex and grub from their women," instead "mooned" over his slave bride... his supporting evidence is a quote from Smeathman about his wife's breasts and another about how extravagant the wedding was. How does that not show him solely sexualizing his 13 yo bride and supporting his own ego with a grand display of a milestone in his own life? Just weird and unrelated to the book's supposed thesis.

Audiobook Notes: Very frustrating that each footnote is read, especially when many of them contain repetitive self-promotion to the author's podcast or prior book. ...more

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Sep 20, 2021 Bailey Caylor rated it liked it

Too much liberal bias and conjecture ruined what had the premise of an excellent book. The basic themes and facts were good but then the biased conjecture poured in and ruined it. The extremely poor use of footnoting that really carried on the more of the individual stories was annoying as well as the grossly repetitive advertising of his “podcasts” in practically every other footnote. I should have known if NPR was pushing it on the cover it would be a disappointment. If there is one thing that ...more

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Jun 11, 2021 Jess rated it did not like it

DNF at 8% due to racist language. The only people who should be referred to as Indian are those who are actually of Indian decent. Just because you're writing about buccaneers doesn't mean you need to write like one.

Far be it for me to expect a researcher to be specific, respectful, and refer to people mentioned in the book by the terms they would use to define themselves.

I read Sam Kean's work years ago and was looking forward to this book. Clearly, I was not reading carefully enough in the p ...more

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Jul 01, 2021 Sam rated it liked it · review of another edition

TLDR: The Road to Hell is Paved in Good Intentions.

We've all heard that they used to rob graves so that doctors-in-training could use them as cadavers. This book covers this and more, stemming all the way into the modern day.

This book was interesting overall, but I deeply disliked the constant reference to go see Podcast A or B. Because it comes in the form of the narrator listing off the URL. It reminds me of when someone prints off a document that used a hyperlink to link to other resources. I ...more

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Sep 06, 2021 Justice Simanek rated it liked it

Every chapter of this book was interesting, but I didn’t see the through-line that tied them all together. Some chapters really didn’t have much to do with science or even ethics. I also thought the author could have handled some of the topics with much more grace. For instance, his depictions of mental health really disappointed me. Specifically his discussions around asylums placed the blame of patients’ poor mental health on themselves and none on the state of the asylum and the truly disgust ...more

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Jul 10, 2021 Ladybug Lynn rated it it was ok

Rounding up from 1.5 because I am feeling generous. This would have been an awesome book if not for the constant commercials for his podcast and website. A book should stand on its own and should not redirect the reader to a podcast for more stories/examples!!!

The author also tries too hard to be conversational and informal/ funny and it just comes across as creepy. He also shows a lack of care/understanding for mental health issues.

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About Sam Kean

Sam Kean

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Sam Kean is a writer in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, The Believer, Air & Space, Science, and The New Scientist. He is currently working as a reporter at Science magazine and as a 2009 Middlebury Environmental Journalism fellow.

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Sam Kean gets called Sean at least once a month. He grew up in South Dakota, ...more

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“But when we sacrifice morals for scientific progress, we often end up with neither.” — 3 likes

“Rivalries are funny things. They waste time and energy. They stir up mean instincts and consume us with petty emotions. Yet in doing so, rivalries also push people to greatness.” — 2 likes

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