At The Fringes Of Science / Edition 1

by Michael W Friedlander

Overview

Scientific discoveries are constantly in the news. Almost daily we hear about new and important breakthroughs. But sometimes it turns out that what was trumpeted as scientific truth is later discredited, or controversy may long swirl about some dramatic claim. What is a nonscientist to believe? Many books debunk pseudoscience, and some others present only the scientific consensus on any given issue. In At the Fringes of Science Michael Friedlander offers a careful look at the shadowlands of science. What makes Friedlander's book especially useful is that he reviews conventional scientific method and shows how scientists examine the hard cases to determine what is science and what is pseudoscience. Emphasizing that there is no clear line of demarcation between science and nonscience, Friedlander leads the reader through case after entertaining case, covering the favorites of "tabloid science" such as astrology and UFOs, scientific controversies such as cold fusion, and those maverick ideas that were at first rejected by science only to be embraced later. There are many good stories here, but there is also much learning and wisdom. Students of science and interested lay readers will come away from this book with an increased understanding of what'science is, how it works, and how the nonscientist should deal with science at its fringes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813390604
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	07/31/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1380L (what's this?)

About the Author

Michael W. Friedlander is professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of The Conduct of Science, Astronomy--From Stonehenge to Quasars, and Cosmic Rays, a selection of the Astronomy Book Club.

Table of Contents

Preface — Science and Its Imitators — Oldies but Goodies — Hesitant Revolutions— Successful and Failed — Science and Its Practice — The Machinery of Science — Respectable Maverick Ideas — Walking on Water or Skating on Thin Ice — Tabloid Science — Pscience — Fraud: Yes, No, and Maybe — Political Pseudoscience — Taking Stock — Responding to Fringe Science — Epilogue — 1998

Editorial Reviews

Surrounding scientific advancements there is a penumbral zone with no sharp boundaries, where honest errors and sloppy works appear, where fraud lies, and where discoveries that have been neither confirmed nor rejected claim recognition. In this fringe, what's trumpeted one day as scientific truth may be discredited the next. A physics professor looks at the headlines--cases of "tabloid science" such as astrology and UFOs, scientific controversies such as cold fusion, and the maverick ideas that scientists first rejected and later embraced--to examine how the experts determine what is science and what is pseudoscience. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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