Founder connections
- Demis HassabisRead and praised in a recommendation answerAsked for a non-AI book, Hassabis names this as a recent book he especially enjoyed. This is Labatut’s earlier book, distinct from The MANIAC. His edition is unknown.Source
Summary
Benjamín Labatut draws on the lives and discoveries of scientists and mathematicians, including Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger. His stories connect new knowledge with obsession, uncertainty and destructive uses of discovery. Adrian Nathan West translates the work from Spanish.
The book mixes historical material with invention. It should be read as a work that uses fiction to investigate scientific life, rather than as a factual biography of each person it depicts. This record identifies the 2021 NYRB paperback.
Why read it Our view
Read it to question the heroic discovery story: what does a breakthrough cost, and who bears those costs? Check historical claims separately before using an episode as evidence about a scientist or as a reason for a management decision.