13 Things That Don't Make Sense

0 / 10
Rate this item

Click to read:

Inline Image

The most intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Times

Authors:

Retail Price (Hardback):
Retail Price (Softback): £8.99
Retail Price (Ebook):
ISBN: 9781861976475
First Published:

Description:
Science starts to get interesting when things don't make sense.

Even today there are experimental results that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. In the past, similar anomalies have revolutionised our world: in the sixteenth century, a set of celestial irregularities led Copernicus to realise that the Earth goes around the sun and not the reverse. In 13 Things That Don't Make Sense Michael Brooks meets thirteen modern-day anomalies that may become tomorrow's breakthroughs.

Is ninety six percent of the universe missing? If no study has ever been able to definitively show that the placebo effect works, why has it become a pillar of medical science? Was the 1977 signal from outer space a transmission from an alien civilization? Spanning fields from chemistry to cosmology, psychology to physics, Michael Brooks thrillingly captures the excitement and controversy of the scientific unknown

Ken Giles

Publishers:
Profile Books

Your Opinions and Comments

If like me you're an enthusiastic amateur of the world of science and the puzzles that still await scientific explanation, then you'll love this book. The style is easy, and difficult concepts are unpacked in a way that a layman with background understanding and interest can grasp. The book begins with a chapter on 'The Missing Universe' about the dark matter controversy, but there are chapters on more everyday concerns like the placebo effect, homeopathy and evolution's problem with self-destruction - namely, death.

But if you are looking for the sorts of controversies that would exercise the popular press, then look no further than the chapter on the possibility or otherwise of extraterrestrial life. A book to savour - and indeed even for holiday reading.
posted by David Shepherd on 7/3/2011 17:12