Nine Crazy Ideas in Science

A Few Might Even Be True

Robert Ehrlich

254 pages, parution le 09/12/2002

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Résumé

AIDS is not caused by HIV. Coal and oil are not fossil fuels. Radiation exposure is good for you. Distributing more guns reduces crime. These ideas make headlines, but most educated people scoff at them. Yet some of science's most important concepts-from gravity to evolution-have surfaced from the pool of crazy ideas. In fact, a good part of science is distinguishing between useful crazy ideas and those that are just plain nutty. In this book, a well-known physicist with an affinity for odd ideas applies his open mind to nine controversial propositions on topical subjects. Some, it turns out, are considerably lower on the cuckoo scale than others.

Robert Ehrlich evaluates, for the general reader or student, nine seemingly far-out propositions culled from physics, biology, and social science. In the process, he demonstrates in easy-to-understand terms how to weigh an argument, judge someone's use of statistics, identify underlying assumptions, and ferret out secret agendas. His conclusions are sometimes surprising. For instance, he finds that while HIV does cause AIDS and the universe almost certainly started with a big bang, our solar system could have two suns, faster-than-light particles might exist, and time travel can't be ruled out as mere science fiction.

Anyone interested in unorthodox ideas will get a kick out of this book. And, as a fun way of learning how to think like a scientist, it has enormous educational value. Of course, only time will tell whether any of these nine ideas will be the next continental drift--the now orthodox account of the Earth's geology that was for years just a crazy idea.

Contents

Introduction
More Guns Means Less Crime
AIDS Is Not Caused by HIV
Sun Exposure Is Beneficial
Low Doses of Nuclear Radiation Are Beneficial
The Solar System Has Two Suns
Oil, Coal, and Gas Have Abiogenic Origins
Time Travel Is Possible
Faster-than-Light Particles Exist
There Was No Big Bang
Epilogue

L'auteur - Robert Ehrlich

Robert Ehrlich is Professor of Physics at George Mason University and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the author of twenty books, including Nine Crazy Ideas in Science: A Few Might Even Be True, Why Toast Lands Jelly-Side Down, and Turning the World Inside Out & 174 Other Simple Physics Demonstrations (all Princeton).

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	Robert Ehrlich
Parution	09/12/2002
Nb. de pages	254
Format	13,9 x 21,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	305g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691094953
ISBN13	978-0-691-09495-3