Dancing Naked in the Mind Field

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679442553 ISBN 13: 9780679442554

Publisher: Pantheon, 1998

Here are the outrageous ideas and extraordinary adventures of the world's most eccentric and outspoken Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993, Kary Mullis has frequently been at odds with the scientific establishment. Legendary for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which redefined the world of DNA and genetics, Mullis is also an accomplished 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 who refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, he is brilliant, funny, provocative, and charismatic.

In Dancing Naked in the Mind Field Mullis writes with passion and humor about a wide range of subjects: from the scientific method to parapsychology, from poisonous spiders to the HIV virus and AIDS, from global warming to astrology, from the O. J. Simpson trial to how you can turn a light bulb on with your mind. A multidimensional playland of ideas, this book challenges us to question the authority of scientific dogma even as it reveals the workings of an uncannily original scientific mind.

Review:

Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction, a chemical procedure that allows scientists to "see" the structures of the molecules of genes. Mullis is no shy, socially inept bench chemist, though; on the contrary, he has led as big and full a life as possible, opening himself to experiences like hallucinogenic drugs, surfing, casually handling dangerous chemicals, and taking shots at the sacred cows of science. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field is Mullis's own chronicle of his adventures, from wooing countless women to possibly being abducted by aliens, and it's a funny, shocking tale indeed. This man certainly doesn't suffer from lack of self-esteem, and yet you might want him along on a trip to the astral plane, say, or a tour of the human genome. Mullis is a fascinating character and his autobiography will put to rest forever the stereotype of scientist as skeptical nerd. --Therese Littleton

From the Publisher:

Dancing Naked in the Mind Field is one of the most mind-stretching and inspirational books I've read for a long time. It is also very funny, and I hope that---before it gets banned---myriads of copies infiltrate all the legislatures, colleges and high-schools of the US.
---Arthur C. Clarke, Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey