The Undergrowth of Science by Walter Gratzer, Oxford, £18.99, ISBN
0198507070
EVERY scientist should be familiar with N-rays, discovered in 1903 by the
French physicist René Blondlot. These had properties the science of the
day couldn’t explain, and the physics community’s excited speculation won many
adherents to Blondlot’s claims. These faded quickly when the American physicist
Robert Wood visited Blondlot’s lab and showed that recording of the N-rays was
not the slightest bit changed when he surreptitiously removed what was supposed
to be a crucial component of the apparatus.
This story, like the others in Walter Grazer’s fascinating The
Undergrowth…
