Prof. Mario Livio takes the long view on science. In his newest book, Brilliant Blunders, he points out some of the mistakes made by some icons of science -- Einstein and Pauling among them. More importantly, he insists that researchers must be free to make mistakes.
Livio recently gave us a taste of his subject matter in a talk at the Weizmann Institute (in English):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYaMlTn275A
More like this
“In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.” -Walt Whitman
“Physical reality does not require that we be pleased with its mechanism; we must see the implications of a theory for what they are and not for what we would like them to be.” -Kevin Michel
“I love the sea’s sounds and the way it reflects the sky. The colours that shimmer across its surface are unbelievable.” -John Dyer
“The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” -Edwin Hubble