‘Insulin – the Crooked Timber’
Kersten Hall’s comprehensive account of the modern medical history of the hormone…I concur with Hall that “the real workings of science” are better captured by Immanuel Kant, who gives this book its subtitle “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” In Insulin, Hall does not present “a tale of bold, lone geniuses or saints who set to work on improving the lot of humanity. Instead it is a story of monstrous egos, toxic insecurities, and bitter career rivalry that at times resembles “Game of Thrones” but enacted with lab coats and pipettes, rather than chain mail and poisoned daggers.”
Professor Jerome Groopman, New York Review of Books, 6th October 2022
Insulin was first used to treat human diabetes 100 years ago, after it was isolated by two medical scientists in 1921.Historian of science Kersten Hall describes this transformative event, together with insulin’s development as the first drug produced by genetic engineering and its lucrative exploitation — using a blend of profound research, lively writing and personal knowledge of diabetes. He argues that the history is a tale not of geniuses or saints, but rather one of “monstrous egos, toxic insecurities and bitter career rivalry”.
Andrew Robinson, Nature, 11th April 2022
The story of insulin over the past 100 years, as the historian of science (and former molecular biologist) Kersten Hall shows in this dense and fascinating book, is also a microcosm of developments in science more widely…The pleasures of this book, meanwhile, lie mainly in the storytelling detail and the gossipy richness of the lives, friendships and feuds glimpsed in the hubbub of decades pursuing the improvement of human health
Stephen Poole, The Daily Telegraph, 8th Jan 2022
‘The Man in the Monkeynut Coat’
Shortlisted for the 2015 Dingle Prize by the British Society for the History of Science and chosen as one of the ‘Books of 2014’ by Professor Stephen Curry in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper.
Hall has written a wonderful book, with a solid sense of historical context…and a charming, even playful style of writing that is highly readable as well as informative
Marsha Richmond, Isis
…a fine piece of historical writing rich with illuminating detail and with real excitement for the subject
Kenneth E. Richardson, The British Journal for the History of Science
Hall tells his story with style and pace
Georgina Ferry, author of ‘Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: a Life in Science’, Nature
I was gripped from the beginning to the end of the book
Professor John R. Helliwell, University of Manchester
Gregor Mendel – a New Translation
With Professor Staffan Mueller-Wille and Ondrej Dostal
This splendid volume is the culmination of a long-standing collaborative venture between the Mendel Museum in Brno, the Royal Society in London, and the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS)…It will become an indispensable tool for researchers – and they will have great cause for gratitude to the dedicated experts who put so much effort into its production
Patricia Fara, University of Cambridge