An experimental physicist provides a lively, often humorous assessment of false generalizations about the nature of science
At a time when there is an ever-widening gap between what the expert knows and the average person believes, this accessible volume clearly explains the scientific facts that are indispensable for any understanding of our material universe. Milton Rothman has ten years of nuclear physics research, ten years of fusion energy research, and ten years of teaching behind him. He is also a confirmed - and spirited - skeptic. In this book, he examines sixteen standard myths about the nature of science, demonstrating that much of what passes for logical argumentation consists of the repetition of cliches that are believed to be true by large numbers of people because strong psychological forces maintain their presence in current folklore. Rothman sets the record straight, organizing his chapters around such common adages as "Nothing is known for sure", Nothing is impossible", "Whatever we think, we know now is likely to be overturned in the future", and "Advanced civilizations on other planets possess forces unavailable to us on Earth". This volume demonstrates that the more we turn up the magnification, the less we see of the ghost in the machine, and that science and the supernatural inhabit incompatible domains.
Milton A. Rothman is a former professor of physics and a former research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey. He is the author of seven books, including A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism.
254 pages
ISBN 0=87075-710-8
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