"Drawing on the lives of five great scientists -- Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle and Albert Einstein -- scientist/author Mario Livio shows how even the greatest scientists made major mistakes and how science built on these errors to achieve breakthroughs, especially into the evolution of life and the universe"--Provided by publisher.

Mistakes and blunders -- The origin -- Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve -- How old is the Earth? -- Certainty generally is illusion -- Interpreter of life -- Whose DNA is it anyway? -- B for big bang -- The same throughout eternity? -- The "biggest blunder" -- Out of empty space.