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Informationen zum Autor Michael Shermer Klappentext Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer's celebrated columns in Scientific American For fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Now, in Skeptic , seventy-five of these columns are available together for the first time; a welcome addition for his fans and a stimulating introduction for new readers. Zusammenfassung Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents Introduction: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye I. Science 1. Colorful Pebbles and Darwin's Dictum: Science is an exquisite blend of data and theory 2. Contrasts and Continuities: Eastern and Western science are put to political uses in both cultures 3. I Was Wrong: Those three words often separate the scientific pros from the posers 4. The Shamans of Scientism: On the occasion of Stephen W. Hawking's sixtieth trip around the sun, we consider a social phenomenon that reveals something deep about human nature 5. The Physicist and the Abalone Diver: The differences between the creators of two new theories of science reveal the social nature of the scientific process 6. A Candle in the Dark: Instead of cursing the darkness of pseudoscience on television, light a candle with Cable Science Network 7. The Feynman-Tufte Principle: A visual display of data should be simple enough to fit on the side of a van 8. The Flipping Point: How the evidence for anthropogenic global warming has converged to cause this environmental skeptic to make a cognitive flip 9. Fake, Mistake, Replicate: A court of law may determine the meaning of replication in science 10. Wronger Than Wrong: Not all wrong theories are equal II. Skepticism 11. Fox's Flapdoodle: Tabloid television offers a lesson in uncritical thinking 12. Baloney Detection: How to draw boundaries between science and pseudoscience, Part I 13. More Baloney Detection: How to draw boundaries between science and pseudoscience, Part II 14. Hermits and Cranks: Fifty years ago Martin Gardner launched the modern skeptical movement. Unfortunately, much of what he wrote about is still current today 15. Skepticism as a Virtue: An inquiry into the original meaning of the word "skeptic" 16. The Exquisite Balance: Science helps us understand the essential tension between orthodoxy and heresy in science 17. The Enchanted Glass: Francis Bacon and experimental psychologists show why the facts in science never just speak for themselves 18. Fahrenheit 2777: 9/11 has generated the mother of all conspiracy theories III. Pseudoscience and Quackery 19. Smart People Believe Weird Things: Rarely does anyone weigh facts before deciding what to believe 20. Mesmerized by Magnetism: An eighteenth-century investigation into mesmerism shows us how to think about twenty-first-century therapeutic magnets 21. Show Me the Body: Purported sightings of Bigfoot, Nessie, and Ogopogo fire our imaginations. But anecdotes alone do not make a science 22. What's the Harm?: Alternative medicine is not everything to gain and nothing to lose 23. Bunkum!: Broad-mindedness is a virtue when investigating extraord...
