[PDF] Bad Science eBook

Author : Ben Goldacre
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 19,77 MB
Release : 2010-10-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 1429967099

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Have you ever wondered how one day the media can assert that alcohol is bad for us and the next unashamedly run a story touting the benefits of daily alcohol consumption? Or how a drug that is pulled off the market for causing heart attacks ever got approved in the first place? How can average readers, who aren't medical doctors or Ph.D.s in biochemistry, tell what they should be paying attention to and what's, well, just more bullshit? Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. He has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window. But he's not here just to tell you what's wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample sizes, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You're about to feel a whole lot better.

Author : Gary Taubes
Publisher : Random House (NY)
Page : 536 pages
File Size : 38,95 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Science
ISBN :

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Documents the bizarre 1989 episode of 2 scientists who announced they had created a sustained nuclear-fusion reaction at room temperature & the ensuing scandal.

Author : Peter Daempfle
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 36,55 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Education
ISBN : 144221726X

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We are constantly bombarded with breaking scientific news in the media, but we are almost never provided with enough information to assess the truth of these claims. Does drinking coffee really cause cancer? Does bisphenol-A in our tin can linings really cause reproductive damage? Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience, and Just Plain Bunk teaches readers how to think like a scientist to question claims like these more critically. Peter A. Daempfle introduces readers to the basics of scientific inquiry, defining what science is and how it can be misused. Through provocative real-world examples, the book helps readers acquire the tools needed to distinguish scientific truth from myth. The book celebrates science and its role in society while building scientific literacy.

Author : Ben Goldacre
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 479 pages
File Size : 47,62 MB
Release : 2014-04
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0865478066

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Originally published in 2012, revised edition published in 2013, by Fourth Estate, Great Britain; Published in the United States in 2012, revised edition also, by Faber and Faber, Inc.

Author : Dave Trumbore
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 263 pages
File Size : 39,84 MB
Release : 2019-06-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 026253715X

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All the science in Breaking Bad—from explosive experiments to acid-based evidence destruction—explained and analyzed for authenticity. Breaking Bad's (anti)hero Walter White (played by Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston) is a scientist, a high school chemistry teacher who displays a plaque that recognizes his “contributions to research awarded the Nobel Prize.” During the course of five seasons, Walt practices a lot of ad hoc chemistry—from experiments that explode to acid-based evidence destruction to an amazing repertoire of methodologies for illicit meth making. But how much of Walt's science is actually scientific? In The Science of “Breaking Bad,” Dave Trumbore and Donna Nelson explain, analyze, and evaluate the show's portrayal of science, from the pilot's opening credits to the final moments of the series finale. The intent is not, of course, to provide a how-to manual for wannabe meth moguls but to decode the show's most head-turning, jaw-dropping moments. Trumbore, a science and entertainment writer, and Nelson, a professor of chemistry and Breaking Bad's science advisor, are the perfect scientific tour guides. Trumbore and Nelson cover the show's portrayal of chemistry, biology, physics, and subdivisions of each area including toxicology and electromagnetism. They explain, among other things, Walt's DIY battery making; the dangers of Mylar balloons; the feasibility of using hydrofluoric acid to dissolve bodies; and the chemistry of methamphetamine itself. Nelson adds interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and describes her work with the show's creator and writers. Marius Stan, who played Bogdan on the show (and who is a PhD scientist himself) contributes a foreword. This is a book for every science buff who appreciated the show's scientific moments and every diehard Breaking Bad fan who wondered just how smart Walt really was.

Author : Michael Shellenberger
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 24,29 MB
Release : 2020-06-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 0063001705

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Now a National Bestseller! Climate change is real but it’s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem. Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed “billions of people are going to die,” contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction. Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas. Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions. What’s really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs.

Author : Richard Harris
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 11,14 MB
Release : 2017-04-04
Category : Medical
ISBN : 046509791X

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An essential book to understanding whether the new miracle cure is good science or simply too good to be true American taxpayers spend $30 billion annually funding biomedical research, but over half of these studies can't be replicated due to poor experimental design, improper methods, and sloppy statistics. Bad science doesn't just hold back medical progress, it can sign the equivalent of a death sentence for terminal patients. In Rigor Mortis, Richard Harris explores these urgent issues with vivid anecdotes, personal stories, and interviews with the top biomedical researchers. We need to fix our dysfunctional biomedical system -- before it's too late.

Author : Sam Kean
Publisher : Little, Brown
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 10,53 MB
Release : 2021-07-13
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 0316496529

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From a New York Times bestselling author comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, "a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process. The Icepick Surgeon masterfully guides the reader across two thousand years of history, beginning with Cleopatra’s dark deeds in ancient Egypt. The book reveals the origins of much of modern science in the transatlantic slave trade of the 1700s, as well as Thomas Edison’s mercenary support of the electric chair and the warped logic of the spies who infiltrated the Manhattan Project. But the sins of science aren’t all safely buried in the past. Many of them, Kean reminds us, still affect us today. We can draw direct lines from the medical abuses of Tuskegee and Nazi Germany to current vaccine hesitancy, and connect icepick lobotomies from the 1950s to the contemporary failings of mental-health care. Kean even takes us into the future, when advanced computers and genetic engineering could unleash whole new ways to do one another wrong. Unflinching, and exhilarating to the last page, The Icepick Surgeon fuses the drama of scientific discovery with the illicit thrill of a true-crime tale. With his trademark wit and precision, Kean shows that, while science has done more good than harm in the world, rogue scientists do exist, and when we sacrifice morals for progress, we often end up with neither.

Author : Linda Zimmermann
Publisher :
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 31,62 MB
Release : 2011-01
Category : Errors, Scientific
ISBN : 9780979900242

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Winner of the 2011 Silver Medal for Humor in the Independent Publishers Awards! "Bad Science" takes a humorous look at bloodletting, alchemy, quack devices, the worship of meteorites, faked data, and secret testing on people. The history of science has been fraught with persecution, fraud,and ignorance on a massive scale, but that doesn't mean we can't laugh about it!

Author : David Isaac Rudel
Publisher :
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 26,65 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781935776024

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In Science Myths Unmasked Volume 2, David Rudel continues to expose common errors in science education. This sequel takes the discussion into the realm of physical science, rectifying commonly taught misconceptions about topics covered in chemistry and physics courses, including combustion, simple machines, states of matter, phase changes, electricity, and light. Rudel's accessible style makes Science Myths Unmasked a worthwhile read for life-long learners and a great gift for bright high school students interested in all the myths they have been taught by inaccurate textbooks. State-adopted textbooks perpetrate (and perpetuate) a shocking degree of misinformation, largely because they are less interested in conveying accurate science than in training students to bubble in the right oval on multiple-choice, standardized tests. Rudel provides thorough background for each topic, empowering science teachers to sculpt the material to match the needs of their students. Numerous illustrations and suggested experiments complement the coverage, portraying precisely why many standard explanations are false and how we can better fulfill our obligation to provide genuine science to middle school and high school students.