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Dancing Naked in the Mind Field Paperback – January 4, 2000

by Kary Mullis (Author)

102 customer reviews

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Here is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world's most eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis is legendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world of DNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteran of Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate to describe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundless curiosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" when scientists make announcements.

Mullis writes with passion and humor about a wide range of topics: from global warming to the O. J. Simpson trial, from poisonous spiders to HIV, from scientific method to astrology. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field challenges us to question the authority of scientific dogma even as it reveals the workings of an uncannily original scientific mind.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Delightful . . . joyous . . . an autobiography of the nervous system of an extraordinary chemist." --The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most mind-stretching and inspirational books I've read for a long time." --Arthur C. Clarke

"Kary Mullis, perhaps the weirdest human ever to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, [has written] a chatty, rambling, funny, iconoclastic tour through the wonderland that is [his] mind." --The Washington Post

From the Inside Flap

Here is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world's most eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis is legendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world of DNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteran of Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate to describe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundless curiosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" when scientists make announcements.
Mullis writes with passion and humor about a wide range of topics: from global warming to the O. J. Simpson trial, from poisonous spiders to HIV, from scientific method to astrology. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field challenges us to question the authority of scientific dogma even as it reveals the workings of an uncannily original scientific mind.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (January 4, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679774009
ISBN-13: 978-0679774006
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 102 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #310 in Scientist Biographies
- #499 in General Chemistry
- #4958 in Memoirs (Books)

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Vizsla Mom

A really good read with some odd twists.

January 11, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

As a science student, I read this book because PCR happens every day, everywhere! And the dude is carrying a surfboard, so I figured it'd be interesting. It was! What a character! It got a little out of my scope of reality, but it definitely shows some signs of the mindset and era of this discovery. I love it! And I also loved reading this and realizing that not all geniuses are come from the same background. Kind of makes you look at the teacher's pets like, "ok.. but I have the same chance of greatness so chill!" Read it!

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Tirlittan

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

November 12, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Perhaps i should say that it is a voice whispering amid the cacophony of nonsense. Kary Mullis' book is a breath of fresh air and sanity in the suffocating hysteria of doom and gloom being peddled by the delusional masses and media. I LOVED this book for it's clear-eyed, humorous, and illuminating peek into the world of science. I have, at best, a common (wo)man's understanding of science but my love for it is great. "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" enabled me to step into this amazing dance with Kary Mullis as my eloquent partner, leading me delightfully through the steps and turns of a dance that only made me dream of more such dances.
This book cleared the fog of misinformation and agenda-driven drivel that is driving us to the edge of insanity. Read this book and be entertained, encouraged, and enlightened.

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Cristian Araneda Tolosa

A funny history in the book was how the Nature Journal ...

January 28, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is an interesting book from a Nobel Laureate. It is a pleasure to know from a first hand how was developed de Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and how Kary Mullis win the Nobel Price. A funny history in the book was how the Nature Journal does not published the PCR paper and it was finally published in Methods in Enzymology. I recommend in for any student of biology or UFO investigator. :-)

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Murray Eiland

this book is a great one stop shop

September 28, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Nothing stuffy about this Nobel winner! If you ever wanted to know about how science can be creative, this book is a great one stop shop. The story is easy to follow because it is real, clearly not embellished. I finished it in a day of pleasure.

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Tomas N.

Fascinating read of a brilliant scientific iconoclast ..

June 16, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I was engrossed in each chapter of this book, reading the chapters completely out of numerical order. Front to back, at random, or back to front, the book will take you on a fascinating journey of Kary Mullis' extraordinary life. Upon finishing this book, I think the majority of readers will wish that ALL scientists would think out of the proverbial box; and that they would not follow like sheeple, like money mongers, and like power-seekers within corporate / academic compliant science we (unfortunately) see today. Definitely a great read.

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Terri Stewart

Refreshing!

December 21, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

What a refreshing outlook on several subjects, not that I necessarily agree with him on all points. I got the book because in doing family history research I found out that we are distant cousins and am really glad I did.

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cxlxmx

"long pretelevision days of evolution"

August 9, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, was so enthralling that I almost read it through literally in one sitting after randomly flipping it open and sitting down to finish the paragraph I first set my eyes on. I came to Amazon excited to give it a positive review and was surprised to find the high number of negative reviews. As far as I can tell, many of the negative reviewers don't understand the author or the point of this book.

Reviewers who describe Mullis as a sloppy, irresponsible scientist who just got lucky need to reflect on the fact that he was recruited by Cetus (the company he was working at when he developed PCR), which also saw fit to put him in charge of a research team. This was all before the Nobel prize; he was making traditional professional progress without celebrity.

One of the things that's clear from the book is that Mullis has a deep life-long concern with systemic power structures and the way they warp both our lives and scientific research. So, for example, critics of his views on HIV/AIDS fail to see that he took a position on the topic after one of his friends was ostracized from the professional community for having the "wrong" views in the early days when AIDS research was new and less settled. The same is true of the OJ Simpson trial, which excited Mullis less because he thought so highly of OJ than because he wanted a chance to take down the enormous and overwhelmingly powerful bureaucracy of the LA prosecutor's office. Likewise, astrology is less about whether the stars affect our personality than about the largely unscientific and ineffective field of mental health.

The other face of Mullis' anti-institutional views is a type of humanism, which leads him to say things that, frankly, make perfect sense to me. NASA spends huge amounts of money on the shuttle program and international space station. What the heck are we getting out of it? Why don't we focus first on figuring out how to protect ourselves from natural threats (like the decimation of life from an asteroid impact) before figuring out how to set up a Mars colony. A Mars colony might be exciting, but it's not very practical and isn't doing anything for the man on the street. At one point, he suggests we might just be better off with priests of medieval religion than with priests of modern science. This is similar to the criticisms Nassim Taleb has been making of our priests of Wall Street, and I think it makes sense.

The writing is fast-moving and humor-filled, although inconsistent. I don't know who came up with the clunky title, but most of the book is wittier. He discusses the fact that his wife Nancy encouraged him in writing this book and then edited it. Some parts about PCR are dumbed down versions of his Nobel Prize lecture, so I suspect his wife encouraged him to write something that would be accessible to the general public but still get across his message that we should turn off the TV, do good science, and enjoy the ride.

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