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Serendipity - Telmo Pievani (trans. Michael Gerard Kenyon) ***

There is no doubt that serendipity is a delightful word - and equally no doubt that its meaning of making accidental positive discoveries is an apt one for science. It's quite fun to hear about unexpected finds, whether it's the famous ones like penicillin or perhaps less well known discoveries from PTFE to saccharin (neither of which are considered here).

It is, however, a rather delicate concept - not suited to a heavy duty approach, which is arguably what Telmo Pievani gives it in this slim (but surprisingly long feeling) book. A non-fiction writer is always faced with the temptation to give far more detail on a topic that interests them than necessarily engages their readers. Here, Pievani goes to town on the origins of the word 'serendipity'. It is, indeed vaguely interesting that it came from an old tale about the 'Three Princes of Serendip', but the level of detail we're given on the ancient Persian set of stories this originates from verges on the excruciating - about 20 pages dedicated to little more than etymology, and getting on for 50 pages of meandering before we touch much science.

We do get some scientific discoveries to justify the subtitle of 'the unexpected in science' - but even here it's arguable whether some of the discoveries, such as pulsars really could be considered serendipity. It's true that they were not looking for pulsars (how could they, when no one knew they existed), but they were looking - Bell's discovery was not an accident in the conventional sense of the word. When we do hit on true serendipity, the storytelling is sparse, often getting through it in a page or so before getting back to meandering.

I'm sure this book will appeal to some readers, but I found it verging on the pompous and rarely interesting.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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