Uncertain Science ... Uncertain World

Henry N. Pollack

256 pages, parution le 17/03/2003

Ajouter à une liste

Indisponible

Résumé

Is the world warming due to the Greenhouse Effect? Can nuclear weapon arsenals be relied upon without periodic testing? Is the world running out of oil? What action should be taken against an outbreak of foot-and-mouth or BSE? Is a defensive shield against hostile ballistic weapons possible? Why can't scientists provide certain answers to these and many other questions? The uncertainty of science is puzzling. It arises when scientists have more than one answer to a problem or disagree amongst themselves. In this engaging book, Henry Pollack guides the reader through the maze of contradiction and uncertainty, acquainting them with the ways that uncertainty arises in science, how scientists accommodate and make use of uncertainty, and how in the face of uncertainty they reach their conclusions. Taking examples from recent science headlines and every day life, Uncertain Science ... Uncertain World enables the reader to evaluate uncertainty from their own perspectives, and find out more about how science actually works.

Contents

Setting the stage
Uncertain about science
Can the media help?
Unfamiliarity breeds uncertainty
Fever or chill?
A fifty-fifty chance
I'm not quite sure how this works...
Let's see what happens if...
Reconstructing the past
Predicting the future
Out of the blue
In a climate of uncertainty

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cambridge University Press
Auteur(s)	Henry N. Pollack
Parution	17/03/2003
Nb. de pages	256
Format	16 x 23,5
Couverture	Relié
Poids	512g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780521781886
ISBN13	978-0-521-78188-6