The Ozone Layer by Maureen Christie, Cambridge University
Press,£40/£14.95, ISBN 0521659086
“LOOKERS-ON many times see more than gamesters,” wrote the 17th-century guru
Francis Bacon in his Essays. So it was a relief to find, at the end of
Maureen Christie’s survey of the discovery of the ozone layer, that some of our
investigations were deemed “good” science. But then I recalled Littlewood’s
Miscellany, which cites a remark of A.S. Beicovitch—”A
mathematician’s reputation rests on the number of bad proofs he has
given”—glossing it with “Pioneer work is clumsy.” Gaining scientific
insight is rarely an elegant or…
