Voodoo Science The Road from Foolishness to Fraud

by Park, Robert L.

• ISBN13: 9780195147100
• ISBN10: 0195147103
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In a time of dazzling scientific progress, how can we separate genuine breakthroughs from the noisy gaggle of false claims? From Deepak Chopra's "quantum alternative to growing old" to unwarranted hype surrounding the International Space Station, Robert Park leads us down the back alleys offringe science, through the gleaming corridors of Washington power and even into our evolutionary past to search out the origins of voodoo science. Along the way, he offers simple and engaging science lessons, proving that you don't have to be a scientist to spot the fraudulent science that swirlsaround us. While remaining highly humorous, this hard-hitting account also tallies the cost: the billions spent on worthless therapies, the tax dollars squandered on government projects that are doomed to fail, the investors bilked by schemes that violate the most fundamental laws of nature. But thegreatest cost is human: fear of imaginary dangers, reliance on magical cures, and above all, a mistaken view of how the world works. To expose the forces that sustain voodoo science, Park examines the role of the media, the courts, bureaucrats and politicians, as well as the scientific community. Scientists argue that the cure is to raise general scientific literacy. But what exactly should a scientifically literate societyknow? Park argues that the public does not need a specific knowledge of science so much as a scientific world view--an understanding that we live in an orderly universe governed by natural laws that cannot be circumvented.

Author Biography

Robert L. Park is Professor of Physics and former chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
It's Not News, It's Entertainment: In Which the Media Covers Voodoo Science	p. 3
The Belief Gene: In Which Science Offers a Strategy for Sorting Out the Truth	p. 28
Placebos Have Side Effects: In Which People Tum to "Natural" Medicine	p. 46
The Virtual Astronaut: In Which People Dream of Artificial Worlds	p. 68
There Ought To Be a Law: In Which Congress Seeks to Repeal the Laws of Thermodynamics	p. 92
Perpetuum Mobile: In Which People Dream of Infinite Free Energy	p. 111
Currents of Fear: In Which Power Lines Are Suspected of Causing Cancer	p. 140
Judgment Day: In Which the Courts Confront "Junk Science"	p. 162
Only Mushrooms Grow in the Dark: In Which Voodoo Science Is Protected by Official Secrecy	p. 172
How Strange Is the Universe? In Which Ancient Superstitions Reappear as Pseudoscience	p. 192
Index	p. 215
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