Storia stupefacente della scienza. Hashish, ketamina e funghi da Avicenna a Oliver Sacks

Though we often envision scientists as paragons ofvirtue – solemn, upright and tirelessly dedicated totheir research – history shows that many have alsoengaged in hallucinogenic “adventures”. AlessandroPaolucci has put together an entertaining account ofscientists of the past, towering intellects who, even asthey scandalized their contemporaries with less thansterling qualities/behavior (vanity, arrogance andworse), brought about watershed advances perhapsdue in part to their use of mind-altering substances.The breakthroughs of many renowned for such scientific insights and discoveries – from Avicenna toThomas Edison, Paracelsus to Oliver Sacks – are noless significant for their originators’ lack of moral impeccability or occasional irrationality.