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Voodoo Science : the Road from Foolishness to Fraud Ebook, Epub VOODOO SCIENCE : THE ROAD FROM FOOLISHNESS TO FRAUD PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Robert L Park | 240 pages | 15 Nov 2001 | Oxford University Press Inc | 9780195147100 | English | New York, United States Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud PDF Book As someone who enjoys science, but doesn't have much of a scientific education, I found the explanations in this book perfectly easy to understand. They decided to throw him a champagne party to celebrate his survival. The classic example, which Park covers at length, is the cold fusion episode in the late s and early s that had the scientific community in an uproar until the claims of Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann eventually dissolved under increasing scrutiny. Robert Park immediately dismisses this as nonsense. Books by Robert L. Errors take place for all kinds of reasons - there is money involved in peddling fraudulent claims, one repeated many times is the idea of a perpetual motion machine which claims to produce more energy than it takes to run the machine. He blatantly states at the beginning that this book is not for scientists. Next, it illustrates the procedure with classic examples such as models for the atom. There are scientific arguments against cold fusion, but equally there were arguments against continental drift. This shows up clearly in a graph of the Washington data over the five years prior to the experiment He is also noted for his preference for robotic over to manned space exploration. Statistics indicated otherwise as the book Voodoo Science points out. United States Congress. The therapists were stunned. This book is not for physics majors or other scientists, he made this labor of love for me, and for you if you're in the same boat. Gets pretty detailed in the descriptions of physics and science which I liked. Here, the physicist Robert Park points out seven warning signs of pseudo-science. You need to understand when you are being sold nonsense as science, or you can be defrauded. He also provides a good overview of the scientific method and how its self regulating mechanisms eventually relegate bad ideas to the trash heap. These are things This is a book that is well worth the read. Hard work, I know. He makes a distinction between foolishness and fraud, with both coming under his umbrella term "voodoo. The problem was that I found this book so boring that I had a hard time playing attention. Self Help. This is not a book for the scientific specialist, although Park's own credentials are impeccable. Convincing, entertaining and worthwhile Professor Park has a dry satirical wit that he unleashes here on the practitioners of what he calls "voodoo science. Consider how the two books might approach Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra, which claims that the power of the mind can cure illnesses and turn back the aging process. Scientists are not cast as infallible, but rather as hu Science! Negatives: 1. Apart from this brief episode, which was a statistical outlier, the level of homicides during June and July of was not significantly higher than during the remainder of the year [2]. It is particular valuable in helping people to decipher what is bogus and what is not in a modern society fraught with high technology. All these types of "voodoo science" depend, of course, on a great popular respect for science, often coupled with a scientific illiteracy that makes it difficult for people to distinguish genuine claims from fraudulent ones. Jul 16, Eric Troy rated it really liked it. Emotional events may result in hypotheses being felt to be indubitably correct, so that we become very reluctant to abandon them even in the face of clear contrary evidence. He uses the term voodoo science to cover them all: pathological science, junk science, pseudoscience, and fraudulent science. Marconi, the discoverer of radio waves, and Tesla, who pioneered the development of electrical devices, were regarded as crackpots by their contemporaries. Under his catchall title of "voodoo science," Park discusses several, somewhat different forms of scientific delusion. Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Do senators have enough scientific acumen to judge whether the US should proceed with an anti-ballistic missile defense system? Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud Writer The placebo effect illustrates this: If a person is told that a medicine will cure a sickness, and the person believes this, then the person will feel better after taking it even if it consists of pure water. The argument is invalid because there could be a more global organisation not tied to specific local arrangements and thus undisturbed by local movements of molecules. This is a crucial point; if the largely entertainment-focused media did not supportively cover these topics as it does, most junk science claims would not get very far. Other Editions Science works on the basis of pattern recognition - once a pattern is recognized in the phenomena being observed, then a valid generalization can be articulated and worked upon. Scientists are not generally renowned for communicating their ideas in plain English to lesser mortals. The problem here is one that arises whenever science is confronted with novel or unconventional ideas. In a time of dazzling scientific progress, how can we separate genuine breakthroughs from the noisy gaggle of false claims? Bob Park, a Professor Emeritus who was an author and outspoken advocate for science and rational thought, died on April 29, Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. From Deepak Chopra's "quantum alternative to growing old" to unwarranted hype surrounding the International Space Station, Robert Park leads us down the back alleys of fringe science, through the gleaming corridors of Washington power and even into ou In a time of dazzling scientific progress, how can we separate genuine breakthroughs from the noisy gaggle of false claims? April , Vol. It is thorough in its treatment. There, beliefs are not accepted as valid until they have been carefully tested by experiment and assessed by experts; only then are they allowed publication in the scientific journals, which fulfil the role of the depository of accepted knowledge. They decided to throw him a champagne party to celebrate his survival. Professor Park does a wonderful job of explaining what he means by voodoo science and proceeds to offer a number of fascinating stories. They believed that the Earth was about to be re-cycled as the third millennium was approaching and that a spaceship in the tail of Comet Hale-Bopp would whisk them away to Heaven. Extrasensory perception ESP , psychokinesis, supernatural phenomenon, aliens, out-of-body experiences, the creationist view of the origin of the universe and the evolution of life, astrology and fortune telling are among the subjects that are shown to be invalid or non-existent beyond a reasonable doubt. It was very heavy on Physics, cold fusion, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, all things that I'm just not interested in at all. Reviewing the book for The New York Times , Ed Regis compared it positively to the book by Martin Gardner , Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science , calling Voodoo Science a "worthy successor" and praising it for explaining why various purportedly scientific claims were in fact impossible. For a start, the investigatory team did not include an active biologist, which one might have considered a reasonable precaution to take in order to avoid naive errors. Some people will believe anything! The Virtual Astronaut In which people dream of artificial worlds. Park objects to our calculation of how much violent crime dropped. How Strange Is the Universe? The American Biology Teacher. Books by Robert L. Park is clearly most at home with the physical sciences, and his exhaustive critiques of gadgets that purport to break the laws of thermodynamics eventually become a little redundant. Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud Reviews Thanks for telling us about the problem. But, on the other hand, scientists "knew" that Alfred Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift was scientifically impossible. Wonder that fragile, self-replicating specks of matter, trapped on a tiny planet for a few dozen orbits about an undistinguished star among countless other stars in one of billions of galaxies, have managed to figure all this out. It should also be required reading for senators, representatives and other parties involved in funding or investing in scientific research. To ask other readers questions about Voodoo Science , please sign up. The average incidence of murder in Washington was little more than one per day, and with numbers as low as this, as Park and all scientists know, random fluctuations can appear extremely high when listed as percentages. But if someone tells you a stegosaurus is running down Fifth Avenue, you would assume that he's mistaken. Voodoo Science 2 books. He gives not only examples from the U. Expose new ideas and results to independent testing and replication by other scientists. Added to PP index Total views 33, of 2,, Recent downloads 6 months 1 , of 2,, How can I increase my downloads? For the average John Doe, the stars are in heaven not on Earth. Park is what you'd expect from a Physics professor - a little dry, skeptical, but willing to explain what's going on in words that can be easily understood. You might think it unusual, but it's certainly possible, and you would have no reason to doubt the story. Refresh and try again. Moreover, in some places the book is so one- sided in its evaluation of evidence that it falls into the very kinds of errors in reasoning that it decries.
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