Chapter 15

     Chapter 15 is entitled "An Element of Madness." It references the madness of Robert Lowell and introduces The idea of a mad scientist. The foreshadows Kean's subject throughout the chapter, pathological science. Pathological scientists are not driven by data and discovery, but by an obsession with something, an emotional need for something they believe to be true. William Crookes is the first pathological scientist Kean dives into. After the death of his brother, Crookes grew obsessed with spiritualism. Often cited by ghost hunters, instead of refuting spiritualism as scientifically implausible, he began to run experiments that he felt proved the beliefs held by spiritualists. Despite his great work in selenium, a toxic element known for being eaten by cattle and producing dangerous highs in them, he has provided sustenance for self-proclaimed rebels.
      Kean goes into the story surrounding the megalodon, an ancient species of shark that is known for being gargantuan. Because megalodon teeth was found covered in manganese, scientists could estimate the giant shark's timespan and extinction. Most of the teeth had 1.5 million years worth of manganese, but one particular tooth only had about eleven thousand years of manganese grown on it. This prompted some people to make absurd claims of its continued existence, defending their views with the existence of the coelacanth, which was thought to be extinct before being found in an African fish market.
      Kean also talks about the "discovery" that B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. They convinced themselves and claimed that they had discovered cold fusion. Cold fusion is the idea of a nuclear reaction that produces energy at room temperature, as opposed to the reactions that occur in stars and use more energy. This is similar to a perpetual motion machine because it produces energy (nuclear or kinetic) and required little to no energy input. They would be remembered for their failure, all because of their rush for glory. The opposite occurred for William Röntgen, who discovered what we now call x-rays. Not wanting to make any declarations too soon, he ran test after test in an effort to find the error in his work. At first, ge believed he was going mad, but he had his wife try it and she saw the same thing he saw: an image of the bones in her hand. She believed it to be an omen of death, but he was ecstatic to learn that he wasn't going mad or imagining the entire thing. This worked out in the end, as whenever a scientist tried to contradict him, he could say that he already tried that. His caution brought him glory, while the lack thereof caused the sharp downfall of the cold fusion duo.
      I like that this chapter went over mad science, something often seen as a fictional trope. It brought real life examples of scientists driven to madness, or those who landed close. Crookes went mad after the death of his brother and tried to provide obscure or unreliable scientific data to prove spiritualism. Pons and Fleischmann were blinded by their mad desire to make an important discovery. Röntgen believed he was mad before validating his discovery with another person.