I Told You So!

I Told You So!
Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
by Matt Kaplan

“I Told You So!” by Matt Kaplan is a well-written, interesting, and important book about science. Telling the story of scientific discovery in an easily understandable way is not an easy thing but Kaplan does a great job. No doubt his experience as both a scientist and journalist contribute to his success in making these accounts highly readable and understandable.

“I Told You So!” explains how science works, problems in science, and how science should work. Kaplan picks several examples ranging from the middle ages to modern times to illustrate his points.

My favorite example was Katalin Karikò who was working on mRNA and disease. After her Hungarian university could not support her, she moved to Temple University in Philadelphia. After difficulties there, she moved on to the University of Pennsylvania. After failing to raise research funding was demoted and then fired and her things put in trash bags in the hall.

She took a job with a little known German company and a few years later she was awarded a Nobel prize https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2023/kariko/facts/
For “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”

Kaplan presents his ideas on better ways support science and improve its quality.

I thank Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com ) for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on Feb 24 2026.

Our President and the Nobel Peace prize

It is well-known that Donald Trump would like to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize. It seems unlikely to me.

This from Newsweek:

The chances of President Donald Trump winning the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize are “quickly decreasing,” a major bookmaker has told Newsweek.”

The odds against Trump have worsened following America’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and the White House’s continued push to take over Greenland.

  

I am certainly not on the committee that decides the winner or privy to its deliberations. But I think the war crimes and killings might be factors in not winning.

For a peace prize I think our President might have settle for soccer’s FIFA Peace Prize

ICE shootings

A Minnesota women was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. The agency claims it was in self-defense as the women was trying to run over the agent, the President said she was badly behaved and ran over the agent.

Publically available video does not seem to show that. So we have 3 different accounts of how this happened.

My first reaction was there needed to be an independent investigation since there may be other videos, witnesses and facts that were not immediately known. This could explain the discrepancies. However, this does not seem possible since the homeland security secretary is denying Minnesota authorities evidence.

Since there have been multiple shootings by ICE agents across the county and self-defense is sometimes claimed, I think all of these shootings should be investigated by Homeland Security as well as local authorities. Where Homeland Security and local authorities disagree an independent group is probably appropriate . How to choose this group would be a matter between Homeland Security and the local authorities.