Drive and Curiosity ─ What Fuels the Passion for Science

Hargittai (research, Budapest U. of Technology and Economics, author) offers an interesting perspective on science in the 20th century with personality profiles of 15 scientists who made some of the most significant discoveries of the century. Some of those science personalities are well-known, such as James D. Watson, Linus Pauling, and Edward Teller--others not as well-known. Considering the approach, it probably helps greatly that the author was acquainted with all but two of those eminent scientists. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Istvan Hargittai PhD, DSc (Budapest, Hungary), is the author of the critically acclaimed Judging Edward Teller; the six-volume Candid Science series of interviews with famous scientists; The Road to Stockholm: Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists; The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century; and The DNA Doctor: Candid Conversations with James D. Watson. Dr. Hargittai is Research Professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and a member of the Academia Europaea in London.