In a new article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Assistant Professor of History David Hecht examines the way we idealize some scientists and, at times, distort their findings to come up with easily digestible narratives. “…The gap between the actuality of science practice and its public portrayal seems larger than with most subjects, particularly when the focus is on individual greatness — an approach that bears some similarities to the ‘great man’ theories of historical change, which scholars debunked decades ago,” Hecht writes.

Hecht studies the history of science and is the author of a new book, Storytelling and Science: Rewriting Oppenheimer in the Nuclear Age, published by the University of Massachusetts Press.