Table of Contents

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Failing to Define Failure 3. Fail Better: Advice from Samuel Beckett 4. The Scientific Basis of Failure 5. The Unreasonable Success of Failure 6. The Integrity of Failure 7. Teaching Failure 8. The Arc of Failure 9. The Scientific Method of Failure 10. Failure in the Clinic 11. How to Love Your Data When It's Wrong: Negative Results 12. Philosopher of Failure 13. Funding Failure 14. A Plurality of Failures 15. CODA Notes Index

About the Author

Stuart Firestein is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where his highly popular course on ignorance invites working scientists to come talk to students each week about what they don't know. Dedicated to promoting science to a public audience, he serves as an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program for the Public Understanding of Science and was awarded the 2011 Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching. He was also recently named an AAAS Fellow.

Reviews

"If there is any justification for man's ability to overcome his own limits of reason, 'FAILURE' stands as a shining example." - New York Times Book Review "Energetic...a close examination of how repeated failure refines problems, clarifying the way forward." - Nature Magazine