Galileo's Revenge Junk Science in ihe Courtroom

by Huber, Peter W

• ISBN13: 9780465026241
• ISBN10: 0465026249
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-03-24
• Publisher: Basic Books
• More Book Details

Summary

This is a book about scientific cranks and iconoclasts who peddle their strange diagnostics and quack cures not at country fairs but in courtrooms across the land.

Author Biography

Peter Huber is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy, where he specializes in issues related to technology, science, and law. His previous books include Hard Green, Liability, and Galileo's Revenge. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Peter W. Huber, an M.I.T.-trained engineer and a Harvard law graduate, has also taught at M.I.T. and formerly clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. A Manhattan Institute Fellow, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
PART I The Lawyer and the Scientist Trade Places
Liability Science	9	(15)
Better Living Through Litigation
The Science of Things That Aren't So	24	(15)
Junk Science and Its Origins
PART II Law and Pseudoscience
The Midas Touch	39	(18)
How Money Causes Disease
Sudden Acceleration	57	(18)
Runaway Panic in the Mass Media
Gadgets and Knives	75	(17)
Cashing In on Magical Cures
No Immunity	92	(19)
Chemicals Cause Everything
Nausea	111	(19)
The Massed Legal Attack
The Paranoia Plebiscite	130	(18)
The Legal Pursuit of Fad Terrors
Harmonious Coupling	148	(23)
Ignoring the Environment
PART III The Rule of Fact
The Cargo Cult	171	(21)
Does Liability Science Work?
Stopping Points	192	(22)
Confronting Malpractice on the Witness Stand
Science and Certitude	214	(15)
Notes	229	(32)
Acknowledgments	261	(2)
Index	263