Science Friction_ Where the Known Meets the Unknown - Michael Shermer [165]
—THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
A scientist pretends to be a psychic for a day—and fools everyone. An athlete discovers that good-luck rituals and getting into “the zone” may, or may not, improve his performance. A son explores the possibilities of alternative and experimental medicine for his cancer-ravaged mother. And a skeptic realizes that it is time to turn the skeptical lens onto science itself.
In each of the fourteen essays in Science Friction, bestselling author Michael Shermer explores the very personal barriers and biases that plague and propel science, especially when scientists push against the unknown. What do we know and what do we not know? When does theory become accepted fact? As always, Shermer delivers a thought-provoking, fascinating, and entertaining view of life in the scientific age.
“[SHERMER’S] MAIN OBSESSION IS THE TRUTH. . . . AMATEUR SKEPTICS WILL LEARN
FROM HIS MATTER-OF-FACT DISMISSALS OF ASTROLOGY AND CREATIONISM.”
—PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
“EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING.”
—SCIENCE NEWS
MICHAEL SHERMER is a columnist for Scientific American and the author of the bestselling Why People Believe Weird Things, How We Believe, The Science of Good and Evil, and four other books. He is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and the founder and director of the international Skeptics Society. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Not Knowing
I / Science and the Virtues of Not Knowing
1. Psychic for a Day
2. The Big “Bright” Brouhaha
3. Heresies of Science
4. The Virtues of Skepticism
II / Science and the Meaning of Body, Mind, and Spirit
5. Spin-Doctoring Science
6. Psyched Up, Psyched Out
7. Shadowlands
III / Science and the (Re)Writing of History
8. Darwin on the Bounty
9. Exorcising Laplace’s Demon
10. What If?
11. The New New Creationism
12. History’s Heretics
IV / Science and the Cult of Visionaries
13. The Hero on the Edge of Forever
14. This View of Science
Notes
Permissions
Acknowledgments
Index