ABSTRACT
The relationship between the history of science and ‘scientific biography’ is a far more complex configuration, counter-intuitive even, than is often recognised. The trivial proposition that biography enunciates a life history, thus ‘scientific biography’ offers the history of a life in science, neatly locates itself with the view of the history of science as a progressive enterprise dedicated to the revelation of human genius rather than the stupidities of politics and war (as historian of science Charles Singer contended, explaining his own philosophically driven passion at the Second International Congress for the History of Science and Technology in 1931). 1 Perhaps such a view has firm foundation when discussing Faraday, Einstein, Darwin, Mendeleyev or other distinguished scientists, though I fear not. The proposition loses all reflexivity when one begins to analyse the life of one of the more tortured souls who did not produce the powerful scientific theory or even progress in the chosen discipline with any particular speed.
