Chapter 14 Summary and Reflection

     In chapter 14, Kean talks about how money and science come together. As science became more and more expensive, the people who could actually do the mind blowing discoveries were the people who had the money to do it. The author then turns to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was a writer that enjoyed making bold claims about science and politics even though he wasn't adept in either subjects. One major bold claim Goethe made was that of double replacement reactions. Goethe described the reactions like two marriages with the laws of attraction. The whole thing would work by having each person falling in love with another person in the other marriage. Although Goethe made absurd claims, he did help launch the career of another Johann, that is Johann Dobrereiner.

     The last person mentioned in the chapter is Robert Lowell. Mentally, Lowell wasn't all there. Even though he suffered through episodes of madness, his best work came from them. Although people enjoyed the work of Lowell, the madness that ran in his head spilled onto his life. One episode had him stuttering in front of a friend's house that he was the Virgin Mary. Another episode had him trying to stop cars by spreading his arms like Jesus. Nothing was available back then to help with this madness until lithium came along. Lithium became the first mood stabilizer and Lowell agreed to be medicated. Lithium prevents the next episode from happening and it regulates the proteins that makes this happen. Even though lithium helped Lowell, his work changed and people noticed.

     This chapter showed me the different faces of science. You think that people know what they talk about, but reading about Goethe reminds me of the way some politicians deceive people. I say deceive because Goethe published his ideas and influenced people, in a way he kind of deceived them. Reading about Lowell made me sad because he suffered through the thoughts in his mind and people enjoyed reading about it. Once he was well, people didn't enjoy his work anymore because he had changed.