Voodoo science : the road from foolishness to fraud
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Voodoo science : the road from foolishness to fraud
Oxford University Press, 2000
- : cloth
- : hbk
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Note
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book examines the social, economic and political forces that elicit or support flawed or fake science and sustain it in the face of often overwhelming contrary evidence. "Voodoo Science" is intended to include pseudoscience, or irrational beliefs dressed up in scientific garb, the misuse of science to deliberately mislead or confuse, and pathological science, in which scientists persist with their interpretations long after the evidence has decisively ruled against them in the perspectives of an objective observer. The book attempts to delineate the contexts in which fraud can arise in science, and also to assess the trends in the Public's ability to assess scientific issues and integrate scientific understanding in their judgements and world view. The story is told through examples ranging from impossible perpetual motion machines to magnet therapy. Drawing on his eighteen years of exposing bad science, Park does not hesitate to name names and point fingers.
Park lays the ultimate blame for "voodoo science" not on the media, the government, or the scientific illiteracy of the public, but on the scientific community itself, and the failure of scientists to communicate to the public.
Table of Contents
PREFACE. 1. IT'S NOT NEWS, IT'S ENTERTAINMENT: IN WHICH THE MEDIA COVERS VOODOO SCIENCE. 2. THE BELIEF GENE: IN WHICH SCIENCE OFFERS A STRATEGY FOR SORTING OUT THE TRUTH. 3. PLACEBOS HAVE SIDE EFFECTS: IN WHICH PEOPLE TURN TO "NATURAL" MEDICINE. 4. THE VIRTUAL ASTRONAUT: IN WHICH PEOPLE DREAM OF ARTIFICIAL WORLDS. 5. THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: IN WHICH CONGRESS SEEKS TO REPEAL THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS. 6. PERPETUUM MOBILE: IN WHICH PEOPLE DREAM OF INFINITE FREE ENERGY. 7. CURRENTS OF FEAR: IN WHICH POWER LINES ARE SUSPECTED OF CAUSING CANCER. 8. JUDGEMENT DAY: IN WHICH THE COURTS CONFRONT "JUNK SCIENCE". 9. ONLY MUSHROOMS GROW IN THE DARK: IN WHICH VOODOO SCIENCE IS PROTECTED BY OFFICIAL SECRECY. 10. HOW STRANGE IS THE UNIVERSE?: IN WHICH ANCIENT SUPERSTITIONS REAPPEAR AS PSEUDOSCIENCE. INDEX
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