88: Brilliant blunders (Mario Livio)

June 3, 2013

The next time you’re kicking yourself for some stupid mistake, remember: Even history’s genuises screw up! Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio joins this episode of Rationally Speaking to talk about his new book, “Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein – Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe.” Learn about why Darwin’s theory of natural selection “shouldn’t” have worked, why Einstein was confused about the role of aesthetics in physics, why Hoyle stubbornly refused to change his mind about a “steady state” universe — and why those mistakes are central to scientific progress.