Where the Truth Lies

Author: Jan Sapp
Genre: Science, History

Jan Sapp’s book basically describes the tragic career of Franz Moewus, initially regarded as the founding father of molecular biology and later dismissed as a fraud. The book explores the factors the led to these sad turn of events. Using Moewus’ case as an example, the book uncovers the sociopolitical parts of science and shows that in the end scientists too are human. It also describes the concept of fraud and shows that many a times it is difficult to define it and more importantly to prove that it has actually happened.

Along with the Moewus’ case, the book also briefly discusses the story of two founding fathers: Garrod and Mendel. The author highlights the situations that led to these two being regarded as founding fathers. The author reasons that it was not the experiments done by these two but rather the interpretations others made of their studies that were important factors. In fact, Mendel’s results were actually ‘too good’ and rather over simplified and it is suspected that he polished his data. However, that does not seem to have affected him being regarded as the father of genetics.

Personally, I found the book very enlightening. It uncovers a side of science that is seldom seen. When the history of science is described in textbooks, it only deals with the triumphs. The books tell us that the various scientists came to their conclusions based on objective reasoning and sound and accurate experiments. However, more often this is not the case. Scientists are but human, and it is difficult to be objective all the time. Sometimes their judgments are influenced by the sociopolitical situations of that time, opinions of peers and also their own personal biases.