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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Park, Robert L. Voodoo science. New York : Oxford University Press, 2000 (OCoLC)646998102 |
|---|---|
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Robert L Park |
| ISBN: | 0195135156 9780195135152 |
| OCLC Number: | 41951308 |
| Notes: | Includes index. |
| Description: | x, 230 p. ; 25 cm. |
| Contents: | It's not news, it's entertainment : in which the media covers voodoo science -- The belief gene : in which science offers a strategy for sorting out the truth -- Placebos have side effects : in which people turn to "natural" medicine -- The virtual astronaut : in which people dream of artificial worlds -- There ought to be a law : in which Congress seeks to repeal the laws of thermodynamics -- Perpetuum mobile : in which people dream of infinite free energy -- Currents of fear : in which power lines are suspected of causing cancer -- Judgment day : in which the courts confront "junk science" -- Only mushrooms grow in the dark : in which voodoo science is protected by official secrecy -- How strange is the universe? : in which ancient superstitions reappear as pseudoscience. |
| Responsibility: | Robert L. Park. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
"In a time of dazzling scientific progress, how are we to separate genuine breakthroughs from the noisy gaggle of false claims? Touching on everything from Deepak Chopra's "quantum alternative to growing old" and "free energy" machines to unwarranted hype surrounding the International Space Station, Robert L. Park leads us through the dim back alleys of fringe science, down the gleaming corridors of Washington power, and even into our evolutionary past to search out the origins of voodoo science. Along the way, Park offers some simple and engaging science lessons, showing us that you don't have to be a scientist to spot the foolish and fraudulent science that swirls around us." "To expose the forces that sustain voodoo science, Park closely examines the role of the media, the courts, bureaucrats, and politicians, as well as the scientific community. Scientists, he observes, insist that the cure for voodoo science is to raise the general scientific literacy. But what is it that a scientifically literate society should know? It is not specific knowledge of science the public needs, Park argues, so much as a scientific world view - an understanding that we live in an orderly universe governed by natural laws that cannot be circumvented by magic or miracles."--Jacket.
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