Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to FraudScience fascinates us by its power to surprise. Occasionally, unexpected results that appear to violate accepted laws of nature can herald revolutionary advances in human knowledge. Many revolutionary discoveries, turn out to be wrong, however, and even eminent scientists have had their careers tarnished, mistakenly thinking that they have made a great discovery. This is pathological science, in which scientists are subject to self-delusion. And if scientists can sometimes fool themselves, how much easier it is to craft arguments deliberately intended to befuddle jurists with little or no scientific background. This is junk science, typically consisting of theories of what could be so, with little supporting evidence to prove that it is so. Sometimes there is no evidence at all. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - dresdnhope - LibraryThingA very good book about the junk science and the media's willing role in promoting it. Short synopsis: Cold fusion and perpetual motion bad, peer review good. Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - raindiva1 - LibraryThingGood book. Gets pretty detailed in the descriptions of physics and science (which I liked). I think he may have gone slightly over his intended audience's heads with the details though. Read full review
Contents
| 3 | |
| 28 | |
| 46 | |
| 68 | |
There Ought to Be a Law In which Congress seeks to repeal the laws of thermodynamics | 92 |
Perpetuum Mobile In which people dream of infinite free energy | 111 |
Currents of Fear In which power lines are suspected of causing cancer | 140 |
Judgment Day In which the courts confront Junk Science | 162 |
Only Mushrooms Grow in the Dark In which Voodoo Science is protected by official secrecy | 172 |
How Strange Is the Universe? In which ancient superstitions reappear as pseudoscience | 192 |
Index | 215 |
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Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud Popular science |
| Author | Robert L. Park |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint, revised |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2002 |
| ISBN | 0198604432, 9780198604433 |
| Length | 230 pages |
| Subjects | › Science / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |