The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments

by Courtney Hilden

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George Johnson is a short book chronicling the scientists and science surrounding the ten most eloquently simple and clever experiments of all time. You won't find the classic moments of Galileo's infamous observation about movement or Newton's gravity apples, but you will find some of the better known scientists and their least known experiments, with illustrations and personal stories as part of the narrative.
Sadly, the most boring part of each chapter is the explanation of the experiments. Science is best explained and understood in a more visual form, and even though the book has illustrations, it was hard to discern what Johnson was saying, even when dealing with Pavlov’s famed dog and saliva experiments, which is usually understandable in most textbooks.
The most interesting thing about this book is the human drama going on in tandem with these experiments. Johnson says in this introduction that he doesn’t want to talk about the personal lives on scientists, but then discusses it at the beginning and end of the chapter. It is unfortunately the best parts of the book, and too bad that so little time is dedicated to it.
There’s something very narrow about the author’s view. Johnson seems most interested in science happening in Western Europe from about 1810 to 1850. If he wanted to write a book about those experiments, the relationships between these scientists, he should have done so. In addition to that, much of the book focuses on the work done to understand electricity. There’s little in the way of biology, except for a chapter on the heart and (shockingly!) electricity. I don’t know what exactly Johnson’s background is, other than what is in the book’s biography, but I get the distinct impression he’s an electrical engineer. The lack of life sciences in the book is disheartening and gives the reader an impression that somehow life science is not capable of great experiments.

There’s an annoying change in point of view and verb tense within the chapters. He tells the scientist’s background in one tense, then switches to another to explain the experiment, then occasionally tell his own story in another tense. There’s something irritating in how jarring the switch is from one to another, even though they are often clearly separated within each chapter.
Overall, this book is an excellent read, but only if you already have a technical background. Otherwise, it's only interesting in small sections.