Science's irrational origins

What is the scientific method, and what makes it the most efficient approach for generating insight? In The Knowledge Machine, Michael Strevens argues that to answer this question, we must acknowl­edge the role played by the undisciplined and emotional nature of the humans who carry it out. The book takes readers on a whirl­wind tour through the history of science, rendering Arthur Eddington, Louis Pasteur, G. G. Simpson, Lord Kelvin, and many others as "warm-blooded organisms, whose enthu­siasms, hopes, and fears mold their thinking far below the threshold of awareness."