A very talented science writer recently
won a prestigeous prize for popular science writing from The Guardian.
In an unprecedented politicisation of the most prestigious prize for popular science books, the winning author pledged to donate his £10,000 prize to the family of the late government scientist David Kelly.
More on the flip
David Bodanis was awarded the Aventis science book prize for his wonderful book
Electric Universe - How Electricity Switched on the Modern World which tells the history of electricity, from the creation of the universe to now.
In accepting his prize he declared his intention of donating the prize money to Dr. David Kelly's family.
"Science is all about truth. There's one realm where a lot of people feel that truth hasn't come out and truth is known but it hasn't been acknowledged," he told the Guardian. Alluding to Dr Kelly's death following comments he made to a journalist about Iraq war intelligence Dr Bodanis said, "[Dr Kelly] was aware of what was really going on and the government lied and tried to feel they could suppress the truth. Events have clearly shown that they were wrong and he was right."
We rarely hear about Dr. David Kelley's tragic story anymore. Bodanis is right that there are still a lot of holes in the story. I'm not a big believer in conspiracy theories, and I have a suspicion this may be a tragic story of a man who was not able to handle the pressure to lie and took his own life, but even so, even without sinister government forces, this is a huge tragedy and he deserves to be remembered for being right, if nothing else, when so many said he was wrong.
The Wikipedia has much of the details with this short introduction:
David Christopher Kelly CMG (May 17, 1944 - July 17, 2003) was an employee of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD), an expert in biological warfare, and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His talk with a journalist about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq inadvertently caused a major political scandal, and he was found dead days after appearing before a Parliamentary committee investigating it. The Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into his death, ruled that he had committed suicide.
Dr. Kelley was one of the first government insiders to question the completely silly assertion in the British government's dossier that Iraq could attack with chemical and/or biological weapons in 45 minutes. He was publically questioned and pressured and eventually either committed suicide or was killed by nefarious forces. The inquest was never fully resolved to a high degree of evidence.
So, let's remember Dr. Kelley. Let's also thank David Bodanis for his generous gesture to remember a martyr for The Truth by purchasing what is also a very engaging book.
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