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Genre/Form: | Nonfiction Trivia and miscellanea Miscellanea |
---|---|
Material Type: | Internet resource |
Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Michael Brooks |
ISBN: | 9780385520683 0385520689 |
OCLC Number: | 213480209 |
Description: | 240 pages ; 25 cm |
Contents: | The missing universe -- The pioneer anomaly -- Varying constants -- Cold fusion -- Life -- Viking -- The Wow! signal -- A giant virus -- Death -- Sex -- Free will -- The placebo effect -- Homeopathy. |
Other Titles: | Thirteen things that don't make sense |
Responsibility: | Michael Brooks. |
More information: |
Abstract:
Reviews
WorldCat User Reviews (1)
13 things that don’t make sense: ...
Review of ‘13 things that don’t make sense‘ by Michael Brooks
CITATION: Brooks, M. (2008). 13 things that don’t make sense: the most baffling scientific mysteries of our time. New York: Vintage Books.
Reviewer: Dr W. P. Palmer
I have supplied...
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Review of ‘13 things that don’t make sense‘ by Michael Brooks
CITATION: Brooks, M. (2008). 13 things that don’t make sense: the most baffling scientific mysteries of our time. New York: Vintage Books.
Reviewer: Dr W. P. Palmer
I have supplied this review with the information about the contents of this book (see below) so that prospective buyers may clearly observe the variety of the topics covered.
PR0LOGUE 1
THE MISSING UNIVERSE 7
We can only account for 4 percent of the cosmos
THE PIONEER ANOMALY 36
Two spacecraft are flouting the laws of physics
VARYING CONSTANTS 46
Destabilizing our view of the universe
COLD FUSION 57
Nuclear energy without the drama
LIFE 69
Are you more than just a bag of chemicals?
VIKING 83
NASA scientists found evidence for life on Mars. Then they
changed their minds.
THE WOW! SIGNAL 97
Has ET already been in touch?
A GIANT VIRUS 110
It’s a freak that could rewrite the story of life
DEATH 122
Evolution’s problem with self-destruction
SEX 136
There are better ways to reproduce
FREE WILL 151
Your decisions are not your own
THE PLACEBO EFFECT 164
Who’s being deceived?
HOMEOPATHY 181
It’s patently absurd, so why won’t it go away
EPILOGUE 203
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 211
NOTES AND SOURCES 213
INDEX 225
There are no diagrams and the book uses continuous text in a fairly small print about complex issues, so it is not necessarily an easy read, but it is informative, up to date and accurate to the best of my knowledge. The feature of the book that is particularly clever is the way in which each chapter leads into the next chapter, providing a sense of continuity for the whole work.
In the first chapter, the reader is given the often quoted statement that ‘We can only account for 4 percent of the cosmos’ and provides a history of how this conclusion was reached. However, Brooks does give other possible explanations of this data such as the MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) theory. Brooks says (p.34) ’Put bluntly, we are not yet clever enough to describe the universe without making those-possibly catastrophic- simplifying assumptions.’
The cold fusion chapter was of interest to me as I had read a lot about cold fusion in the 1990s. Some of the story appeared to be missing, but I was extremely pleased to see that some truth may eventually be salvaged from this curious event, though not what was originally claimed.
In the chapter on homeopathy, Brooks makes it clear that there can be no reasonable explanation of the chemistry of homeopathy, but various theories are put forward.
Overall this is a very well-written book, written by an expert in the field.
BILL PALMER
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