Times of Triumph, Times of Doubt: Science and the Battle for Public Trust - Hardcover

Elof Axel Carlson (born 1931) is distinguished teaching professor emeritus at State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well as an American geneticist and noted historian of Science.

In his thought provoking book Times of Triumph, Times of Doubt, [Carlson] asks why many of his young students who have turned away from careers in science feel that science has let them down through its bad outcomes . In making his analysis he includes in the scientific community not only researchers but also those responsible for the commercialization and regulation of science, such as business executives, ethicists, theologians, legislators, lawyers and journalists.
--Ian Wilmut, Nature

Scientific insight and discovery have radically improved our lives, and science will continue to improve the human prospect: that is the core of Carlson's book. Dismayed by the public distrust of science and scientists in the early 21st century, the author argues that the vast majority of scientists have had motives that were at worst benign and often noble, they wanted to improve human life or were driven by intellectual curiosity. Science has been put to bad uses, he quickly concedes, but the transformation for the better it has made in the lives of most human beings is easily worth the price... Carlson could not be boring if he tried, and he is at least as hard on the scientists who go wrong as he is on politicians or theologians. The story he tells should be widely read and discussed. This volume is provocative from the first to the last page. If I were grading this book, I would give it an unconventional, but richly deserved, A+.
—The Quarterly Review of Biology

The book gives a very good overview of the major issues facing scientists now and in the past. The explorations of the moral foundations of the book are so careful and simply written that it will compel the reader to reflect on her own values and beliefs. Times of Triumph, Times of Doubt will be beneficial not only for those working in medical research and ethics, but also for the general public who will find it very interesting and informative.
--Metapsychology Online Reviews