No Easy Answers

by Franklin, Allan

• ISBN13: 9780822942504
• ISBN10: 082294250X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-09
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Summary

Allan Franklin offers an accurate picture of science to both a general reader and to scholars in the humanities and social sciences who may not have any background in physics. Through the examination of nontechnical case studies, he illustrates the various roles that experiment plays in science. He uses examples of unquestioned success, such as the discoveries of the electron and of three types of neutrino, as well as studies that were dead ends, wrong turns, or just plain mistakes, such as the "fifth force," a proposed modification of Newton's law of gravity. Franklin argues that science is a reasonable enterprise that provides us with knowledge of the natural world based on valid experimental evidence and reasoned and critical discussion, and he makes clear that it behooves all of us to understand how it works.

Author Biography

Allan Franklin, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is author of Selectivity and Discord: Two Problems of Experiment; Are There Really Neutrinos? An Evidential History; Can That Be Right? Essays on Experiment, Evidence, and Science; Experiment, Right or Wrong; and other books.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	vii
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(12)
I. Experiment---Making or Breaking Theories	13	(66)
The Violation of Parity Conservation	15	(17)
The Meselson-Stahl Experiment: ``The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology''	32	(12)
Emil Konopinski and the Theory of β-Decay	44	(13)
The Rise and Fall of the Fifth Force	57	(22)
II. The Search for What Is There	79	(102)
The Discovery of the Electron	81	(17)
The Road to the Neutrino	98	(19)
How Many Neutrinos?	117	(15)
The Appearance and Disappearance of the 17-keV Neutrino	132	(14)
The Missing Solar Neutrinos	146	(23)
Blas Cabrera and the Search for Magnetic Monopoles	169	(12)
III. The Trouble with Scientists	181	(50)
Robert Millikan and the Charge of the Electron	183	(10)
The Early Searches for Gravity Waves	193	(17)
Atomic Parity Violation: Do Mutants Die of Natural Causes?	210	(17)
Conclusion: No Easy Answers	227	(4)
Glossary	231	(4)
References	235	(18)
Index	253