BOOK REVIEW

Crewdson describes in painstaking de- demiology data from Montagnier’s lab Science Fictions: A tail how the dispute developed: from were rather poor and still implicitly sug- Scientific Mystery, a the discovery in Paris in January 1983 gest that this early work should have by Françoise Barre of a new retrovirus had greater impact. More recently, both Massive Cover-up, and (HIV) cultured from lymphocytes of a Montagnier and Gallo have had modest French patient, to its resolution in output, despite large laboratory bud- the Dark Legacy of Washington, D.C. in July 1994 with the gets. Here again, Crewdson seems to acknowledgment that the virus isolated find greater fault with Gallo. Robert Gallo at the National Institutes of Health in Gallo clearly went too far in staking Gallo’s laboratory (HTLV-IIIb) was in his claim for the discovery of the AIDS by John Crewdson fact one of the first viruses isolated in virus, but in his aversion to Gallo, Little, Brown & Co., $27.95, 672 pp, 2002 1983 at the Pasteur Institute. The daily Crewdson seems affected by a romantic practice of modern science is revealed longing for the ‘old science’—the purely REVIEWED BY FRANK MIEDEMA in these pages—how altruistic activity that we Sanquin Research at CLB and Landsteiner scientists obtain data scientists very much want Laboratory, Academic Medical Center in the lab, derive con- to believe academic science University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands clusions from these once was. One may not findings, present at like Gallo’s opportunistic, In 1878, long before he died and already meetings and negoti- intuitive style of research, an international hero, Louis Pasteur told ate with editors and but it is increasingly com- his family never to show anyone his lab- reviewers to get the mon in today’s biomedical oratory notebooks. More than a century papers published in community. Even when later, Gerald Geison, a professor of his- the top journals. The big money is not involved, tory at Princeton University, made the book reads like a de- modern science has be- first systematic analysis of those note- tective story; it has a come a mixture of acade- books and compared them with protagonist of sorts in mics, politics and business Pasteur’s formal scientific publications Suzanne Hadley, a with stiff competition as and lectures. Geison demonstrated how prominent member of the driving force. Indeed, Pasteur used strong rhetoric, the media the NIH’s Office of doing science is not simply (who were invited to field trials) and Research Integrity, applying a ‘scientific even foul play to promote his theories who examined the laboratory note- method’. Pasteur was a great scientist, and methods on immunity and vaccina- books of Mika Popovic and other collab- Geison concluded, in part because he tion. Geison’s book is the first to correct orators of Gallo and compared them was an excellent researcher in the labo- © http://medicine.nature.com Group 2002 Nature Publishing the carefully constructed Pasteurian leg- with formal scientific publications, ratory, but mostly because he was also end: that of a saint whose vocation was claims and patents. gifted with social skills and personal to search disinterestedly for scientific From the opening statement qualities that enabled him to truth in order to improve human health. Crewdson establishes that his book “is ‘Pasteurize’ France. Because of this as- Geison writes from the now more com- not about AIDS, nor is it really about pect of Pasteur’s character, his science monly held and realistic perspective science,” but “about how scientists be- had an immediate impact on the daily that—as articulated by John Ziman in have when the stakes are high.” The practice of hygienists in Western Real Science—contrary to the widespread book depicts the striking differences be- Europe. Had Luc Montagnier or even myth, “science is not a uniquely privi- tween Gallo and Montagnier with re- Françoise Barre been a bit more leged way of understanding things, su- spect to their research styles—a ‘Pasteurian’, the history of the discovery perior to all others.” Real science, for comparison that is extrapolated to the of the AIDS virus might well have been which Ziman coined the term ‘post-aca- more extroverted US and in general still rather different. demic science’, is a social activity that more introverted European research provides opportunity for a professional styles. Crewdson is not only highly crit- career, to make a living while doing cre- ical of Gallo’s opportunistic and con- ative work in a competitive interna- frontational style and how he used his Do you have thoughts or ideas for tional environment. As the products of contacts with the popular press and edi- the Book Review section? biomedical science gain increasing eco- tors of Science and Nature, but also of his We actively solicit your

nomic potential, the practice of science personality. At times he is simply unfair suggestions for books or topics. and the behavior of scientists are chang- to Gallo the scientist; for instance, ing in an unprecedented manner. when blaming him for specificity prob- John Crewdson’s new book Science lems with the first generation of com- Nature Medicine welcomes your comments – Fictions: A Scientific Mystery, a Massive mercial US blood tests and for being you may contact Cover-up, and the Dark Legacy of Robert wrong on some purely scientific issues. us at our email address: Gallo relates Gallo’s well known dispute On the other hand, Crewdson is often with Luc Montagnier over the priority too uncritical of Montagnier’s group. It [email protected] of the discovery of the AIDS virus, and it is illogical to conclude that the scien- is highly reminiscent of Geison’s book tific quality and presentation of the about the private science of Pasteur. 1983–1984 virological and sero-epi-

NATURE MEDICINE • VOLUME 8 • NUMBER 7 • JULY 2002 655