Book summary “When Science Goes Wrong”: summary

Introduction

You likely view science as a reliable engine of objective truth and steady progress. Society often expects researchers and engineers to operate above common human flaws.

Simon LeVay reveals that science is a deeply human endeavor subject to error, hubris, and systemic failure. When Science Goes Wrong examines how experimental therapies, meteorological forecasts, volcanic predictions, and engineering projects occasionally end in disaster.

The book explores twelve historical case studies across neuroscience, geology, nuclear physics, and space exploration. You will discover how financial pressures, confirmation bias, and regulatory oversights derail even the most rigorous investigations.

How do brilliant minds miss obvious warning signs? What pushes researchers to bypass vital safety protocols? How do flawed studies transform into official public policy?

1. Neuroscience and Fetal Transplants

Parkinson's disease is caused by the progressive death of dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra, leading to severe movement disorders. Well over half of the dopamine cells have to die before the disease shows itself, making the underlying disease process develop silently for years.

Pioneering experimental treatments for Parkinson's disease crossed ethical boundaries and relied on unregulated procedures that ultimately resulted in biological anomalies and professional ruin.

Max Truex, a record-setting American long-distance runner, developed a steady tremor, shuffling gait, and speech difficulties in his forties and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. During his athletic and professional life, Truex trained extensively by running along the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles, breathing in carbon monoxide, particulates, lead, ozone, and industrial pesticide residues like DDT. Genetic factors can make it harder for the body to break down specific toxins, aggravating the risk when individuals are chronically exposed.

The Runner's Brain

Pioneering researchers attempted to treat Parkinson's disease by transplanting immature dopamine cells from human fetuses directly into the patient's striatum. Curt Freed performed the first American fetal transplant in Denver in November 1988 on 51-year-old patient Don Nelson, using tissue extracted from an aborted fetus after 19 years of suffering from Parkinson's disease.

Unregulated Research in China

Neurosurgeon Robert Iacono bypassed American restrictions by taking an incapacitated patient to China to perform an unverified and unsupervised fetal-cell transplant procedure. Max Truex and Robert Iacono endured difficult travel during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests to reach a Zhengzhou cancer hospital lacking hot water or proper microscopes, where Iacono performed the operations for a $20,000 to $25,000 hospital fee. Iacono utilized readily available aborted material without proper tissue matching, injecting cells directly into the brain's ventricles using 16 weeks old for the first two fetus samples and 5 to 6 weeks old for the embryonic tissue sample.

Autopsy Discoveries and Suppression

An emergency post-mortem examination of a fetal-cell transplant recipient revealed complete failure of the grafted neural cells and the unexpected growth of abnormal embryonic tissues. In March 1991, following Max Truex's sudden death at age 53, 1 year and 10 months after the trip to China, neuropathologist Rebecca Folkerth performed a late-night autopsy at the New England Medical Center and found the startling teratoma-like growths. Medical journals faced resistance when attempting to publish reports on disastrous surgical outcomes due to fears of discrediting the broader field of experimental cell therapy.

2. Meteorology and the Great Storm

Geostrophic winds blow parallel to isobars when pressure gradient forces balance the Coriolis force. Near the surface, friction weakens the Coriolis force, causing the wind to cross isobars. This shearing action generates baroclinic instability, producing counterclockwise spinning vortices that form extra-tropical cyclones.

Extra-tropical cyclones exploit baroclinic instability and data observation gaps, turning conflicting computer models and poor human forecasts into historical meteorological disasters.

This mechanism drove the Great October Storm of 1987 after cold arctic air and warm subtropical air collided over the northeastern Atlantic.

Atmospheric Dynamics

Weather analysis requires mapping pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind across vertical atmospheric levels. Historically, about ten weather ships maintained in the North Atlantic until the 1970s provided vital balloon radiosonde data, but these were phased out in favor of satellites that struggled to measure vertical atmospheric levels. Consequently, forecasters relied on automated buoys, commercial aircraft, and blacklisted commercial ships. Ahead of the 1987 storm, Britain lacked sufficient transatlantic data coverage, exacerbated by rumors of a French civil service strike that did not actually disrupt data transmission.

Data Gaps and Computer Models

The UK Meteorological Office used a CDC Cyber 205 supercomputer capable of executing 200 million calculations per second running two models with different grid sizes: a fine-mesh model with boxes of about 60 kilometers on a side covering the UK and a global model with boxes of about 120 kilometers on a side covering the Earth, using about twenty levels dividing the vertical dimension of the atmosphere. On October 15, 1987, the fine-mesh model predicted the storm would miss the mainland, while the global model predicted a severe landfall. Forecasters compromised by issuing a milder forecast predicting high winds only for coastal channels. Senior forecasters and managers like Martin Morris may have pressured teams to avoid overdoing warnings, resulting in a flawed public consensus.

The Media and Modern Solutions

A television weather broadcast downplaying the storm became the definitive symbol of official meteorological incompetence. BBC weatherman Michael Fish stated during a lunchtime broadcast delivered at 1:25 p.m. on Thursday, October 15, 1987, that a woman had called about a hurricane on the way and assured viewers that there was not one. Anita Hart, a viewer whose son studied meteorology and warned of a hurricane, called the BBC and received the denial that later became notorious after being heavily replayed by tabloids.

Because extra-tropical cyclones move rapidly, the forward speed of the entire system adds to the cyclonic circulation speed on the right side and subtracts on the left. The 1987 storm center raced across Britain at more than 50 mph, with pressure at depression center decreased to about 953 millibars and the highest recorded mainland gust of 106 knots (121 mph) at Gorleston alongside a maximum gust of 117 knots (134 mph) on the coast of Normandy. The storm killed 16 people in England and 4 in France, destroyed an estimated fifteen million trees, and left total insured losses of $4.2 billion.

Thomas Jung of the ECMWF demonstrated that modern models could successfully predict the 1987 storm track when run with current software. By running a model run fifty times with slightly different starting conditions, ensemble forecasting provides a measure of confidence and helps forecasters assess uncertainty when computer models conflict. When Thomas Jung applied current ECMWF models and ensemble testing to historical data, the model robustly forecast the storm despite data perturbations.

• Run meteorological models multiple times using slightly different starting conditions to test prediction sensitivity.
• Use ensemble forecasting outcomes to measure confidence in model predictions before issuing public warnings.

3. Volcanology and the Galeras Tragedy

Magma rich in silica creates thick, pasty lava that forms solid domes and leads to sudden, unpredictable explosions. Galeras in Colombia, a 14,000-foot peak near the city of San Juan de Pasto, produced thick andesite magma that caused frequent explosive eruptions throughout recorded history.

Magma and Seismic Signals

Volcano-tectonic earthquakes are brief, jittery signals caused by rock fracturing as magma rises, but they are unreliable short-term predictors of eruptions. Low-pitched, musical long-period seismic events occur when a slug of magma jerks forward in a crack and creates acoustic resonance. Bernard Chouet discovered that these low-frequency vibrations are analogous to household water-hammer effects.

On January 2, 1991, Bernard Chouet successfully predicted an eruption of the Redoubt volcano in Alaska based on a sudden surge in the frequency of long-period events. Tornillos are specialized long-period seismic events shaped like screws that signal the sealing of a lava dome and an impending explosion. In July 1992, nine tornillos were recorded over five days at Galeras, culminating in a lava dome explosion on July 16.

Tornillos and the 1993 Disaster

Volcanic eruptions are notoriously difficult to predict using simple seismic data, and professional daring often leads researchers to ignore established safety guidelines inside active craters.

An international scientific meeting inside an active volcanic crater ended in disaster when an unpredicted explosion occurred on January 14, 1993. Organized by Stanley Williams, the field trip brought scientists directly into the crater of Galeras to sample gases and measure gravity. An explosion ripped through the crater at 1:41 p.m., killing six scientists and three hikers instantly or via falling incandescent rocks.

Professional associations established safety guidelines to restrict unnecessary visits to active volcanoes, though researchers frequently ignore them.

• Do not visit active volcanoes unless it is absolutely necessary for data gathering.
• Refrain from offering field trips to active volcanoes as add-ons to scientific meetings.
• Wear mandated protective gear such as hard hats, gas masks, and fire-resistant coveralls.
• Maintain radio communications and proper emergency preparedness.

4. Neuroscience and the Ecstasy Scandal

Flawed animal studies and mislabeled laboratory bottles can generate alarmist scientific claims that directly drive restrictive federal legislation before being retracted.

Senator Joseph Biden introduced the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act into the U.S. Senate as an amendment to the crack-house statute on June 18, 2002. The RAVE Act sought to penalize event organizers up to $250,000 fines against persons who promoted or provided space for raves if they knowingly allowed illegal drug use.

Brain Damage Claims

In 1998, neurologist George Ricaurte, psychiatrist Una McCann, and colleagues published a PET scan study suggesting structural brain changes in former recreational Ecstasy users.

In September 2002, Ricaurte and colleagues published a paper in Science reporting severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA. Ricaurte administered 6 milligrams per kilogram of body weight total dose given via subcutaneous injection to 5 squirrel monkeys and 5 baboons used in the study.

In April 2003, President Bush signed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act into law after it was attached as an amendment to the Amber Alert Act.

The Retraction and Aftermath

Ricaurte treated a series of monkeys with oral and injected MDMA doses up to 12 milligrams per kilogram, but none of the animals exhibited damage to their dopamine system.

In July 2003, mass spectrometry results confirmed that the brains of the monkeys from the original study contained methamphetamine and no trace of MDMA. The two suspect bottles were received from RTI in the same package on April 27, 2000.

Rick Doblin and Michael Mithoefer's proposed clinical study of Ecstasy for PTSD received Institutional Review Board approval just two weeks after September 12, 2003, when Science published Ricaurte's letter of retraction.

5. Engineering Geology and the St. Francis Dam

The failure of the St. Francis Dam in March 1928 remains America's worst civil-engineering disaster of the 20th century, resulting in hundreds of fatalities.

Built by legendary water engineer William Mulholland to secure a year's water supply for Los Angeles, the concrete gravity-arch dam collapsed just five days after its reservoir filled to capacity. On March 12, 1928, at two and a half minutes before midnight, the dam collapsed, sending 32,000 acre feet of water down San Francisquito Canyon and killing an estimated 400 to 450 persons. The flood destroyed the lower powerhouse, killing 65 of its 69 workers and residents.

Mulholland's Design

Mulholland significantly compromised the safety margins of the dam by raising its height and thinning its base during construction without making compensatory adjustments. During construction, Mulholland twice raised the dam's height from 175 feet to 195 feet. He omitted the lowermost portion of the toe, leaving the base 20 feet thinner than specified.

Local historian Charles Outland discovered the shortened toe decades later by closely examining construction photographs.

Geological Failures and Uplift

Engineering disasters stem from compromised design margins, unstable geological foundations, and hydrostatic uplift forces that undermine monumental public works.

The official state commission concluded that the dam failed due to the severe geological weakness of the Sespe conglomerate foundation when wet. The right abutment rested on the Sespe Formation, a conglomerate held together by films of clay that disintegrated into mush when exposed to water. When author Simon LeVay visited the site in 2006, he placed a loaf-size chunk of the Sespe rock in a creek, and it underwent a slow-motion explosion within ten minutes.

When reservoir water percolated into the foundations, hydrostatic uplift reduced the apparent weight of the dam by up to 45 percent. J. David Rogers pointed out that the left abutment rested on an ancient prehistoric landslide site composed of mica schist, which slid when lubricated by seeping water.

Mulholland initially suspected sabotage by disgruntled Owens Valley settlers, but Caltech seismological records showed no unusual tremors. At the coroner's inquest, Mulholland took full personal responsibility, stating famously that if there is an error of human judgment, he is the human. The City of Los Angeles paid out settlements typically ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 per family. Ray Rising, the sole surviving worker from the lower powerhouse who lost his wife and three daughters, was awarded $30,000 in a court trial.

6. Gene Therapy and Clinical Trial Failures

Financial conflicts of interest and protocol violations in clinical trials can transform innovative biological therapies into lethal systemic immune reactions.

Gene therapy emerged as a promising medical frontier in 1990 when geneticists attempted to treat severe combined immunodeficiency by transferring missing genes into patients. The field gained immense momentum after William French Anderson treated bubble-boy disease, sparking expectations for curing hundreds of genetic and acquired conditions. Geneticist William French Anderson of the University of Southern California cured a four-year-old girl of severe combined immunodeficiency by transferring the missing gene into her body.

The Gelsinger Tragedy

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency is a fatal genetic disorder where infant livers cannot process protein-digestive ammonia, causing rapid coma and death. Because the defective gene lies on the X chromosome, male babies with a single mutated copy suffer lethal ammonia intoxication, while females with two X chromosomes are usually protected. Baby boys born with OTC deficiency see blood ammonia levels spike upon their first meal because their livers cannot metabolize the ammonia produced during protein digestion.

Researchers compromised the safety of a clinical trial by violating agreed protocols, failing to halt after previous adverse events, and proceeding despite a participant's disqualifying high ammonia levels. The trial directed by James Wilson at the University of Pennsylvania pushed forward despite multiple grade-III adverse reactions in previous volunteers, failure to report these events properly, and Jesse Gelsinger's high baseline blood ammonia. Jesse Gelsinger was infused with a massive dose of adenovirus vector on September 13, 1999, despite having a blood ammonia level of 91 micromoles per liter immediately prior to treatment, well above the permissible maximum of 70.

Financial ties between academic researchers and commercial biotech start-ups can create conflicts of interest that prioritize rapid commercialization over volunteer safety. Investigators may push clinical trials forward too quickly and minimize adverse safety signals when they hold substantial stock and funding arrangements in companies designed to exploit their research. James Wilson owned 30 percent of Genovo stock, a company funding 20 percent of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy's operating expenses in exchange for commercial exploitation rights.

Cytokine Storms and Regulatory Penalties

Novel biological therapies can trigger a catastrophic systemic immune reaction known as a cytokine storm, causing multi-organ failure even when pre-clinical animal tests show no toxicity. When immune-modulating antibodies or modified viral vectors activate T cells or provoke cytotoxic T lymphocyte destruction, it can lead to acute respiratory distress, cardiovascular shock, and severe swelling. In the 2006 TGN1412 trial conducted by Parexel in London, six healthy male volunteers suffered a massive cytokine storm within an hour of receiving the monoclonal antibody, leading to multi-organ failure and amputations.

Severe failures in clinical trial execution lead to heavy legal penalties, institutional closures, and stringent government supervision for the researchers involved. Regulatory agencies and Department of Justice actions enforce substantial financial penalties, bans from conducting clinical trials, and mandatory retraining for investigators found to have violated federal compliance terms. Following Jesse Gelsinger's death and subsequent government investigations, the University of Pennsylvania and Children's National Medical Center each paid over $500,000 in penalties, James Wilson was banned from clinical trials until 2010, and the Institute for Human Gene Therapy was closed down.

7. Nuclear Physics and Reactor Meltdowns

Stationary Low-Power Reactor Unit 1 (SL-1) was a small, water-moderated reactor designed for remote arctic radar stations. On January 3, 1961, a nighttime explosion occurred when the central control rod was pulled up by twenty inches instead of the permissible fraction of an inch, initiating an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction known as an excursion.

Small nuclear reactors with critical design flaws expose operators to catastrophic runaway chain reactions and extreme radiological contamination.

Operators Richard McKinley, John Byrnes, and Richard Legg died in the January 3, 1961 explosion at the National Reactor Testing Station. Because nuclear fuel particles penetrated the bodies of the three operators, repeated washings failed to reduce radiation levels, which reached up to 1,500 roentgens per hour. Physicians from Los Alamos National Laboratory performed gruesome autopsies behind lead shields, removing Richard Legg's head and all four limbs to reduce radiation levels before burial.

The SL-1 Accident

The crew had a strict routine for reattaching control rods to their drives during maintenance tests, designed to limit movement to tiny fractions of an inch during critical phases.

• Insert a handle into the top of the rod to extend it by a couple of feet.
• Grasp the handle and raise the control rod by about four inches while another worker attaches a C-clamp to the rod.
• Lower the rod back down until the C-clamp rests against the housing.
• Remove the handle and attach a nut and washer to the top of the rod.
• Reattach the handle and raise the rod just slightly, maybe a quarter of an inch, so another worker can remove the C-clamp.
• Remove the handle and connect the drive to the top of the rod.

Forensic Investigation and Systemic Flaws

Investigators dissolved Jack Byrnes's wedding ring in acid to detect radioactive gold, proving a burst of neutrons had been generated. Because the SL-1 reactor was exceptionally small and utilized only five control rods, pulling a single rod too far could cause a catastrophic excursion. Subsequent reactor designs corrected this by requiring the simultaneous lifting of multiple control rods.

8. Microbiology and Bioweapon Leaks

Accidental airborne releases from military research facilities generate decades of international controversy, evasion, and epidemiological investigations.

Beginning on April 6, 1979, dozens of residents in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union, located 850 miles east of Moscow, died from anthrax. Soviet authorities vehemently claimed the outbreak was entirely natural and caused by infected black-market meat.

Anna Komina, a 54-year-old ceramics factory worker living in the Chkalovskiy district, fell ill on April 4, 1979, and died of anthrax days later.

In 1992, Matthew Meselson and a team of specialists traveled to Russia to review autopsies, interview victims' families, and plot daytime locations. They mapped a cigar-shaped zone extending southeast from Compound 19 and pinned the exact accident date to April 2, 1979. The most distant human victims were 4 kilometers from Compound 19, while animal veterinary cases reached 50 kilometers. A total of 76 people fell ill and 66 died.

Defector Revelations and Laboratory Safety

High-ranking Soviet defectors Vladimir Pasechnik and Ken Alibek revealed the existence of Biopreparat, a vast network employing 30,000 workers across the Fifteenth Directorate. In 1999, Ken Alibek published his book Biohazard detailing how an exhausted shift supervisor and a technician who removed a clogged filter caused the accidental release.

In England, smallpox virus particles escaped through a building's ventilation system in 1977. Janet Parker, a 40-year-old medical photographer working above Henry Bedson's laboratory at the University of Birmingham, inhaled virus particles and died.

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, letters containing powdered anthrax were mailed to news organizations and politicians. Twenty-two people contracted anthrax infections and 5 died, leading Attorney General John Ashcroft to name Steven Hatfill as a person of interest in 2002.

9. Forensic Science and Wrongful Convictions

Systemic corruption, exaggerated statistical match probabilities, and unscientific methods in police crime laboratories lead directly to wrongful imprisonments.

Josiah Sutton was arrested in 1998 at sixteen years old and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He served four and a half years before independent retesting matched the crime scene DNA to Donnie Lamon Young.

Houston Crime Lab analysts reported a random match frequency of 1 in 694,000 for a mixed sperm sample. Proper mixture statistics revealed that 1 in 15 individuals matched the sample.

DNA Mixture Distortion

When an evidentiary sample contains DNA from multiple contributors, analysts must report the fraction of the population whose alleles are represented. Analysts instead reported the population frequency of matching the accused directly.

Michael Bromwich reviewed the Houston Crime Lab and found that 40 percent of 67 reviewed DNA cases contained serious deficiencies. These failures included concealed mismatches, dry-labbing, and false qualifications.

Crime Lab Corruption and Reform

Prosecutors frequently invent speculative hypotheses involving unverified perpetrators to preserve a conviction when exculpatory DNA evidence emerges. Peter Neufeld dubbed this tactic the unindicted coejaculator hypothesis.

You can pursue systemic reform by applying specific practices:

• Transfer forensic analysis from police-run facilities to independent agencies.
• Subject laboratories to periodic random testing using blind samples where the lab does not know it is being tested.

Texas law separates a standard full pardon from a pardon for innocence. Governor Rick Perry issued Sutton a pardon for innocence in May 2004, granting him $118,000 in statutory compensation.

10. Space Science and Engineering Blunders

Aggressive cost-cutting philosophies and basic unit-conversion errors in navigational software can destroy multi-million-dollar space missions.

The Mars Climate Orbiter was completely lost because engineering software mixed English units and metric units of force. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and provided navigational software that calculated trajectory adjustments using pounds of force from thruster paperwork, while NASA systems expected newtons. Because the conversion factor of 4.45 was omitted, the software severely underestimated the spacecraft's deviations during Angular Momentum Desaturation events.

On September 23, 1999, after a 419-million-mile journey, the Mars Climate Orbiter passed into its radio shadow behind the planet and was never heard from again because it dipped too low into the Martian atmosphere.

NASA administrator Dan Goldin introduced the Faster, Better, Cheaper philosophy to reduce costs and timelines, which introduced severe staffing and safety risks. The leaner approach aimed to achieve more with less by reusing design elements from earlier missions, known as heritage, and economizing on manpower. The 1996 Mars Pathfinder mission successfully delivered the rover Sojourner using an airbag landing system, but the Earth-orbiting satellite Lewis burned up after its solar panels lost charge because economic considerations prevented round-the-clock staffing.

Organizational Breakdowns

Critical anomalies were missed and left unresolved because the navigation team was severely understaffed and communicated via informal channels instead of proper reporting systems. Only one or two staff members monitored the Mars Climate Orbiter while also juggling other spacecraft. Navigator Eric Graat and team leader Pat Esposito noticed fuzzy navigational solutions, but instead of filing an Incident, Surprise, Anomaly form, an email was sent to Lockheed Martin, where it was dropped as engineers scrambled to fix a jammed solar array gimbal drive before orbit insertion.

The Mars Polar Lander likely failed because faulty landing-leg sensors prematurely shut down its retrorockets while it was still airborne. Tom Young led an independent investigation that concluded the missions were underfunded by at least 30 percent, forcing cost-cutting measures that contributed to the design and testing flaws.

10 Key Ideas

1. Pioneer researchers attempted to treat Parkinson's disease by transplanting immature dopamine cells from human fetuses directly into the patient's striatum, leading to biological anomalies and professional ruin.
2. Extra-tropical cyclones exploit baroclinic instability and data observation gaps, turning conflicting computer models and poor human forecasts into historical meteorological disasters.
3. Volcanic eruptions are notoriously difficult to predict using simple seismic data, and professional daring often leads researchers to ignore established safety guidelines inside active craters.
4. Flawed animal studies and mislabeled laboratory bottles can generate alarmist scientific claims that directly drive restrictive federal legislation before being retracted.
5. The failure of the St. Francis Dam in March 1928 remains America's worst civil-engineering disaster of the 20th century, resulting in unstable geological foundations and hundreds of fatalities.
6. Financial conflicts of interest and protocol violations in clinical trials can transform innovative biological therapies into lethal systemic immune reactions.
7. Small nuclear reactors with critical design flaws expose operators to catastrophic runaway chain reactions and extreme radiological contamination.
8. Accidental airborne releases from military research facilities generate decades of international controversy, evasion, and epidemiological investigations.
9. Systemic corruption, exaggerated statistical match probabilities, and unscientific methods in police crime laboratories lead directly to wrongful imprisonments.
10. Aggressive cost-cutting philosophies and basic unit-conversion errors in navigational software can destroy multi-million-dollar space missions.