Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown

Publishers Weekly

Shermer, a skeptic by nature and trade (he founded Skeptic magazine), reveals how scientific reasoning can remove blinders in any field of study and why some biases are, nevertheless, unavoidable. The book's first essays are highly engaging and will have readers re-examining their own ways of thinking about the world. The introduction, for instance, demonstrates with optical illusions and anecdotes how the mind can be tricked into believing the untrue. "Psychic for a Day" has the author using psychology and statistics to become a medium. "The New New Creationism" refutes the claim that intelligent-design theory is a bona fide scientific theory. When Shermer (Why People Believe Weird Things) makes his essays personal, as in "Shadowlands," in which he describes trying unproven treatments to help his dying mother, he draws readers in. Unfortunately, data often take precedence over prose, as in "History's Heretics," which includes 25 lists of the most and least influential people and events of the past, including the author's top 100. Shermer furthers the cause of skepticism and makes a great case for its role in all aspects of human endeavor, but he'll lose many readers in a bog of details. 46 b&w illus. Agent, Katinka Matson. (Jan. 5) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Shermer (The Science of Good and Evil), publisher of Skeptic magazine, offers a collection of 14 essays that discuss science "on the edge between the known and the unknown." With chapters anchored by skepticism, the author argues that "science is the best tool we have" to distinguish what we know and do not know. Shermer considers "scientific heresies," such as the infectious nature of cancer or the assumption that oil is not a fossil fuel, and rates their degree of accuracy. He briefly traces skepticism through history and then discusses the mathematician Martin Gardner and the founding of the Skeptics Society. He recounts his portrayal of a psychic for a television show, telling how he gained the confidence of the participants, barely concealing his contempt for such practices. Additionally, in a description of his mother's illness and death, Shermer considers the ultimate "not-knowing" or "shadowlands." Recommended for general and popular science collections (but first get Shermer's trilogy: Why People Believe Weird Things, How We Believe, and The Science of Good and Evil).-Garrett Eastman, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

A wide-ranging if tepid collection of 14 essays by the publisher of Skeptic magazine. In his introduction, Shermer (The Science of Good and Evil, 2004, etc.) cites various biases that prevent us from understanding the world around us. He agrees with Francis Bacon-who first identified these "personal barriers"-that only the scientific method can insure a true picture of reality. In that spirit, Shermer undertakes to apply the scientific method to such questions as the validity of "scientific" creationism and the likelihood of such far-out notions as time travel. One essay recounts the author's experiences while posing as a psychic for a TV show. With little study, he managed to convince four subjects of his extrasensory powers by using a few generic buzzwords and telling them what they wanted to hear. Another reports the results of asking focus groups to rate various names proposed for the skeptical movement; they found "critical thinkers" among the least offensive, "unbelievers" the most negative. Turning to history, Shermer uses evolutionary logic to show that the most likely causes of the Bounty mutiny were sexual frustration among the generally young, all-male crew and authority issues arising from Bligh's low status at the Admiralty. History is also the focus of an article ranking the most important scientific discoveries of all time; evolution (no surprise) tops the list. The final two pieces celebrate a pair of cultural icons: Star Trek, which Shermer first watched as a teenager, and the late paleontologist and scientific essayist Stephen Jay Gould. The author sees each as a model in its individual way of the elevation of reason and science to heroic status. Shermer's activeskepticism is intellectually stimulating, but you might wish he would occasionally get excited-or perhaps just show it more often. Instead, he hits all the right notes without quite making them sing. Full of light, but short on fire. Agent: Katinka Matson/Brockman