Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong

This book hit my radar off a Fee.org article where in the author discusses Rachel Carson and the disaster that followed the release of her book Silent Spring, which he discusses in detail in Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Dr. Paul A. Offit, review originally posted on June 14, 2021 on YouTube, or you can watch it on Rumble or listen on PodBean. So of course, having been intrigued by the article, I bought the book, and promptly placed it on my shelf as part of my monument to capitalism. And then I started this channel and had a reason to pull it off the shelf and actually read it. So here we are.

Now, this book reads like a novel. It’s not often you get someone with a highly academic background who is able to write in such an easy to read and engaging style, which made it lots of fun. And horrifying. Turns out when science goes wrong, it goes REALLY wrong.

The first thing covered is mans oldest pain killers. I knew opium poppies were old, from a creaky memory of reading through Odysseus in high school, and mention of poppies in that. Turns out, opium poppies are even older, going back to ancient Sumeria. Who knew?! Now, I knew that from poppies we get opium. From opium we get morphine. From morphine we got heroin. From there my knowledge of opium stopped. But from heroin, we got the most addictive legal drug currently available, oxycodone. I also did not know that each of these was essentially an attempt to remove the incredibly addictive properties of the opium poppy and render it safe as a pain-relieving medication. All attempts have failed, obviously, as the opium poppy and all subsequent derivatives remain incredibly addictive.

Dr. Offit next introduces us to the story of margarine. I’m pretty sure there is a ton of established literature on the danger of trans-fats, but Dr. Offit explains in easy terms exactly what trans fats are, how they differ and why exactly they are so bad for you. Functionally, the amount of trans fats that it’s healthy to consume is 0%. Now, I feel this is a very important distinction. The FDA has set the percentage at 2 grams per day. However, and this is REALLY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR HEALTH—if a given food stuff has transfats that ring at less than .5 grams, then the label can legally read 0 transfats. So, Dr. Offit points out, it is all too easy to surpass 2 grams transfats per day, while eating foods labeled 0 transfats. Dr. Offit points out “the key to avoiding the problem of hidden trans fats is to look for the phrase “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the nutrition label. That partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is a fancy way of saying transfat. So, if a label has that, even if it SAYS 0 transfats…that means less than .5 grams of transfat, not 0. Sneaky FDA allowances…

The next one surprised me. The invention of Ammonia. This seems like a good thing. Ammonia was a breakthrough technology for farmers, as this helped to replenish nitrogen levels in soil, allowing for more crops to be grown, and more people to be fed. But the same guy that invented ammonia, also invented chemical warfare during WWI, and then later the chemical for Zyklon, which was later reformulated into Zyklon B, of Nazi death camp fame. This inventor, who won the Nobel Prize for the invention of Ammonia, was Fritz Haber, who was of Jewish descent. While Haber had converted to Christianity, his Jewish ancestry was, of course, all that the Nazi’s cared about. Haber had invented chemical warfare and ammonia to help Germany. And in the end, Germany did not care for him beyond his heritage. But they still used what he created to kill off the rest of his family.  Now, I thought this was the saddest part of the book.  But from here, each successive story gets darker and darker.

This book covers the horrors of eugenics, wherein scientists twisted basic genetics as explained by Gregor Mendel, into the absurd belief that you could breed out genetic deficiencies. This was taken to extremes where in some I think it was 60K people were forcibly and LEGALLY sterilized with the blessing of the courts…all of this BEFORE these crackpot theories made the leap to Nazi zeitgeist.  The good news is, after the liberation of the camps in Poland and Germany, eugenics died and instant death.

But lobotomies? Yes, lobotomies. This particular horror show had virtually NO backing in science. What it did have was a flashy doctor who was determined to make a name for himself, which he did, in big splashy waves, claiming wild success for treatments of, well, everything. But he actually cured nothing, and generally made things worse. Which is what you would expect from having someone jab a literal icepick in your eye and then literally scramble your brains around.

Hundreds of millions died as a resurgence of malaria from the result of banning DDT. This chapter was particularly disturbing. See, there was a NINE-THOUSAND-page report detailing that DDT was not harmful. At all. Period. But that didn’t stop the EPA from banning it’s use and pushing for the ban globally in the face of political and public pressure after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring released (this is from the article referenced above, and is a nightmarish chapter in the book). This ban remained in effect until the 21st century. 40 years, and in the interim hundreds of millions died from mosquito born pestilence, most of them in Africa.

The last of the seven catastrophes was a series of parables about what happens when experts get blinded with their own hype (FAUCI). Linus Pauling, brilliant chemist who won Nobel prizes for describing chemical bonds, discovered what exactly was happening with sickle cell disease, and determined the structures of protein. Then in his 60s, in searching for the fountain of youth, Pauling determined that high doses of Vitamin C were the cure all for everything. This was grossly inaccurate and actually increased ones risk for cancer. This chapter covers some spectacular blunders in the early AIDS epidemics from specialists in viruses, who adamantly refused to believe the data.

Each chapter ends with an important lesson that can be learned from the stories in the chapters in regards to science, and when science goes so very wrong. I thought about including the lessons in relation to the stories as told, but I reach out to each author and let them know I’m going to reviewing their books, and when he responded, Dr. Offit told me that this book has become a favorite among high school science teachers. And now I’m worried if I reveal the lessons, I’ll become like a Cliff’s notes for students who don’t want to read the book. And you really should read this book; it was fascinating, and very accessible, which again, you don’t necessarily expect from a doctor. You expect lots of big words and weighty science writing. This was like a horror story page turner I couldn’t put down, and the lessons gave me food for thought, and put a different perspective on this last year. Especially the last lesson.  Sorry, I can’t help myself. Pay attention to the little man behind the curtains.  Think about it.