Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis

 Note: We do not have a Nevermore report for today, so instead we have a review from a former employee.  Nancy's reviews were legendary. This one is from 2010; and yes-- we do still have the book.

 

 Reviewed by Nancy

Are you interested in the opinions of a Nobel Prize winning chemist? In his book, Dancing Naked In The Mind Field (081 MUL Main),  Dr. Kary Mullis offers his views on extraterrestrial life, brown recluse spider bites, the use of paid expert witness in judicial proceedings, intuition, your ten thousandth day, astrology, margarine and cholesterol, LSD and other illegal drugs, and HIV and HIV drugs.

In the first chapters of his book Dr. Mullis describes the “eureka moment” when he figured out polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It was the discovery of this process that won him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993.

To vastly simplify this concept, PCR is a process by which a strand of DNA can be replicated many times for study.

In my first reading of Dr. Mullis' account of his discovery I confess that about the only thing I understood was the moment when the concept became clear to him and he exclaimed, "Holy shit!" After that I was lost, but it was still interesting reading (sort of).

I am happy to report that the rest of the book was not too much over my head and I really enjoyed it.

Dr.Mullis covers a lot of subjects, and I am glad of that, because this man has an interesting and enquiring mind. He says, "I knew, maybe from birth, where the circuit breakers were." Mullis developed an interest in astrology after three complete strangers guessed correctly that he is a Capricorn. Being a scientist, Dr. Mullis did the math. The probability of these correct pronouncements occurring by chance was 1 out of 1,728. Wow.

I point out the astrology thing as an example of what's going on in this book. This guy's mind is all over the place. His curiosity is not limited to his specific scientific field. He is interested in everything. Furthermore, Mullis seems to be a pretty down-to-earth individual with a great sense of humor.

What is your opinion regarding the presence of aliens on this earthly plane? Dr. Mullis relates an experience he had at his remote cabin in the woods of Mendocino County, California in 1985. It involved a glowing raccoon, and several hours of "lost time." Around midnight Dr. Mullis was on his way to the outhouse which was about fifty feet from his cabin when he saw the raccoon. It was sitting under a fir tree and it glowed. Mullis speculates that this could have been a hologram projected from who knows where. He pointed his flashlight at it, it said "Good evening, Doctor," and the next thing our good doctor knew it was the next morning and he was in a different location in the woods, walking along a dirt road headed back to his cabin.

Some time later he discovered that his daughter, Louise, had had the same experience in the same location, except that she didn't remember any glowing raccoon. Ah, maybe Dr. Mullis saw the raccoon because he experimented with LSD in the sixties before it was made illegal.

See, I told you he has an enquiring mind. Dr. Mullis has been described as one of our more controversial and flamboyant Nobel laureates. Actually, some people think he's a total kook which, I suppose, accounts for why this kook so thoroughly enjoyed his book.