Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization Book

Exceptional scientists produce transformative work when they are the most free. It is the administrators and the managers who ruined the innovation of science. We should free science.

That's what most of the book is about.

I found that this book did not consider enough the incentives which made administrators intervene so much in the scientific process, and how to change those incentives. Thus, this book sounded like a "science ought to be free" call which is already repeated enough among researchers. The first part of the book lacked great historical storytelling or innovative ideas for me to consider it interesting.

Where the book was most convincing was in its last chapter, where Braben reflected on his experience running what he believe science should be, some funding of top researchers with potential "nobel prize winning" ideas, and the most administrative freedom with no expected outcome. While running this program at BP, he showed that scientists would come asking for help when needed, and manage to create breakthrough developments while left free from administrative pressure.

I would recommend this book for someone who want to read about scientific policies while not being part of the research world. Otherwise, you should read mainly the first and last chapter.