Songwriter Junction

I can actually see the pondering behind this e https://jerkplanet.org/ book. Stan Friedman's speciality is debunking the debunkers. His lectures and his books take sloppy negativism to process, and turn many armchair sceptics into a laughing stock. "Science Was Wrong" takes that general thrust a step additional.

Throughout the historical past of science there have been 'impossibilists' who've denounced the newest discovery or technical innovation as rubbish, typically as a knee-jerk response. In fact, scepticism is part of the philosophy of science - new ideas are scrutinised by peers rigorously, and reproducible methodologies are essential to good science. This ebook has no drawback with that. The issue is the more human component to peer review. Egos, vested pursuits, politics, ethical and religious objections, and evasion of duty are all key parts to understanding why science can go wrong.

The authors describe in detail many effectively-documented events in history when excellent scientific work has been shot down from the sidelines by people who actually should have identified better. They argue that many, many lives have been misplaced as a result.

For example, the invention of the jet engine, which was fist constructed in the town I dwell in (Gloucester, England), may need helped Britain see off the Nazis earlier on during the second world war if Frank Whittle's invention had solely been taken critically (pp22-7). Similarly, Goddard's early work in rocketry was debunked publicly by the brand new York Times, which held off 49 years before apologising (p30). The inventor died unheralded, his work eclipsed by the German rocket scientists dropped at America after the conflict. Inventors often want quite a lot of tenacity, in addition to vision, to beat the scepticism and ridicule that can be piled upon them from all kinds of directions.

The authors argue that "technological progress comes from doing issues otherwise in an unpredictable means" (p40). This notion appears to be anathema to many scientists whose considering is usually extra linear and rigidly structured. Often the coaching of pure scientists sceptical of technological innovation is solely inappropriate - they are not uncovered sufficiently to the world of navy analysis, and their expertise beyond the slender confines of their very own speciality is insufficient to the task of judging the deserves of the case. More typically, however not all the time, debunkers are simply lazy:

"It is definitely not scientific to do one's analysis by proclamation slightly than investigation." (p40)

There are some surprises in the long record of victims of bogus scepticism. Immanuel Velikovsky could have had some unusual ideas about the origins of the planet Venus, however he was proper about its surface temperature, as well as the emission of radio waves from Jupiter (p45) A more fashionable instance is the ridicule heaped upon cold fusion. The authors argue convincingly that results from new research, conducted largely away from the public's gaze, is showing nice promise (Ch5). A breakthrough would have far-reaching penalties for your complete vitality sector. Which, in itself, may be the problem.

Probably the most powerful writing within the e-book was within the part devoted to debunked medical breakthroughs. I discovered the part about Edward Jenner's conquest of Smallpox glorious (he was another local boy from around here, and the cartoon above features some advantageous examples of Gloucestershire people: I feel I recognise a couple of! As an aside to the authors, the Isle of Purbeck, the place Jenner once lived for some time, is just not really an island (p102). It's a district of Dorset the place, coincidentally, I typically take my household on vacation).

Another good chapter mentioned the intransigence and arrogance of the medical institution as early theories of bacterial infections emerged. That doctors typically do not wash their fingers will came as no surprise to many of us in the health sector, even now.

The writing becomes fairly political in places, particularly when describing the American interest in Eugenics in the first half of the twentieth century. I've seen one Amazon review which didn't like the authors' stance on this - a remark which I find scary, frankly. The American, and different Western nations', flirtation with such authoritarian ideologies was certainly a supply of shame, but at the very least America drew back from the brink. The terrifying and tragic penalties of a government doctrine of Eugenics in Nazi Germany were plain for all to see. Although derived from Darwinism in a warped kind of means, Eugenics itself was not a scientifically valid concept at all.

The chapters highlighting corporate negligence and industrial pollution were also powerful, and disturbing. Controversy rages within the chapters on Global Warming, and the environmental issues about toxic methyl mercury pollution from chemical industries and coal-fired energy stations. An inconsistency in the guide emerges here when the authors contemplate what, if anything, to do about the vitality sector's addiction to low cost coal (examine p150 and p158).

The final section of the e book seems to be on the scientific establishment's negativity in direction of fringe analysis areas, reminiscent of psi phenomena and UFOs. Having simply learn in regards to the historic context of grossly unfair - and ultimately improper - scepticism, one can admire what number of trendy sceptics are falling into the same traps:

"Today's skilled "skeptics" typically adhere to an virtually theistic belief in "science", marked by cynicism and the manipulation of knowledge to fit their personal beliefs. Many plead for scientific scrutiny but are sometimes, in reality, scientifically naive writers. Mainstream scientists, the media, and the general public are sometimes deceived by the skeptics' misinformation." (p167)

These are robust claims indeed, but the authors do a wonderful job of substantiating them. Regrettably, a lot of the fabric on this section relies upon work previously published by the identical writers, and it seems like a re-packaging of their materials. But for many not already acquainted with the scientific evidence for psychic phenomena, UFOs and alien abductions there is much here to ponder upon.