Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to FraudOccasionally in the world of science, unexpected results that appear to violate accepted laws of nature can herald revolutionary advances in human knowledge. Many of these 'revolutionary' discoveries do, however, turn out to be wrong, and eminent scientists must carry the burden of a tarnished reputation for mistakenly thinking they have made a great discovery. In this entertaining text, Robert Park examines the social, economic, and political forces that elicit or support flawed or fake science and then go on to sustain it in the face of often overwhelming contrary evidence. Readers are made aware of the fine line that exists between foolishness and fraud and are warned against irrational beliefs dressed up as scientific garb. |
Contents
Its Not News Its Entertainment In which the media covers Voodoo Science | 3 |
The Belief Gene In which science offers a strategy for sorting out the truth | 28 |
Placebos Have Side Effects In which people turn to natural medicine | 46 |
The Virtual Astronaut In which people dream of artificial worlds | 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 |
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