Dancing Naked in the Mind FieldHere is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world's most eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis is legendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world of DNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteran of Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate to describe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundless curiosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" when scientists make announcements. Mullis writes with passion and humor about a wide range of topics: from global warming to the O. J. Simpson trial, from poisonous spiders to HIV, from scientific method to astrology. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field challenges us to question the authority of scientific dogma even as it reveals the workings of an uncannily original scientific mind. |
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
A Lab Is Just Another Place to Play | 26 |
Fear and Lawyers in Los Angeles | 44 |
The Realm of the Senses | 64 |
Think Therefore I Wire | 77 |
My Evening with Harry | 83 |
Intervention on the Astral Plane | 89 |
What Happened to Scientific Method? | 107 |
The Attack of the Loxosceles reclusae | 121 |
No Aliens Allowed | 130 |
The 10000th Day | 137 |
The Age of Nutritional Obsession | 154 |
Case Not Closed | 171 |
Am I a Machine? | 191 |
Acknowledgments 271 | 211 |
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acid antibodies asked astrology Avogadro's Berkeley biochemistry Brad brain brown recluse brown recluse spider California called cancer cause of AIDS cells Cetus chemical chemistry chemists cholesterol climate courtroom Cynthia dark decided dicloxacillin DNA evidence drugs Earth experiments eyes fact feel felt flashlight friends fucking Gallo Georgia Tech Glaxo going gram happened hell human Jennifer jury Kary Mullis kill knew lawyers learned light live looked machine Mendocino million molecules Montagnier morning mother Nancy Navarro River never night nitrosobenzene Nobel Prize ozone Peter Duesberg planet problem pulled reason Robert Gallo scientific scientists sense sequence skin someone spider started stop talk tell things thought tion told took trees trying tube turned understand Vicodin walked wanted watching