The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense

by Michael Shermer

Overview

In The Borderlands of Science, Michael Shermer takes us to the place where real science, borderline science—and just plain nonsense—collide. Shermer argues that while science is the best lens through which to view the world, it is often difficult to decipher where valid science leaves off and borderland, or "fuzzy" science begins. To solve this dilemma, he looks at a range of topics that put this boundary line in high relief. For instance, he debunks the many "theories of everything" that try to reduce the complexity of the world to a single principle. He examines the work of Darwin and Freud, explaining why one is among the great scientists in history, while the other has become nothing more than a historical curiosity. And he reveals how scientists themselves can be led astray, as seen in the infamous Piltdown hoax—the set of ancient hominid bones discovered in England that after decades turned out to be an enormous forgery.

From SETI and acupuncture to hypnosis and human cloning, this enlightening book will help readers stay grounded in common sense amid the flurry of supposedly scientific theories that inundate us every day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195157987
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1540L (what's this?)

About the Author

Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic magazine (www.skeptic.com) and the Director of The Skeptics Society. He is a monthly columnist and contributing editor for Scientific American, and hosts the Skeptics Lecture Series at California Institute of Technology. He has authored several popular books, including Why People Believe Weird Things, How We Believe: The Search for God in and Age of Science, and Denying History. Shermer is also an NPR radio science correspondent. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Blurry Lines and Fuzzy Sets: The Boundary
Detection Problem in the Borderlands of Science	1
Part I: Borderlands Theories
1	The Knowledge Filter: Reality Must Take Precedence in
the Search for Truth	37
2. Theories of Everything: Nonsense in the Name of Science	50
3	Only God Can Do That?: Cloning Tests the Moral
Borderlands of Science	66
4	Blood, Sweat, and Fears: Racial Differences and What
They Really Mean	80
5	The Paradox of the Paradigm: Punctuated Equilibrium
and the Nature of Revolutionary Science	97
Part II: Borderlands People
6	The Day the Earth Moved: Copernicus's Heresy and
Sulloway's Theory	129
7	Heretic-Personality: Alfred Russel Wallace and the
Nature of Borderlands Science	159
8	AScientist Among the Spiritualists: Crossing the
Boundary from Science to Pseudoscience	179
9	Pedestals and Statues: Freud, Darwin, and the
Hero-Myth in Science	199
10	The Exquisite Balance: Carl Sagan and the Difference
Between Orthodoxy and Heresy in Science	215
Part III: Borderlands History
11	The Beautiful People Myth: Why the Grass is Always
Greener in the OtherCentury	241
12	The Amadeus Myth: Mozart and the Myth of the Miracle
of Genius	262
13	A Gentlemanly Arrangement: Science at its Best in the
Great Evolution Priority Dispute	283
14	The Great Bone Hoax: Piltdown and the Self-Correcting
Nature of Science	307
Notes	321
Bibliography	339
About the Author	353
Index	355

Editorial Reviews

"Quick-witted, shrewd, open-minded—these barely describe Michael Shermer's latest confection of intriguing stories, arguments, and insightful observations. His cruise through the shadowlands of science makes a fascinating expedition of the mind."—Gregory Benford, author of Deep Time

"Whether the issue is alternative medicine or environmental threats, cloning or race, cosmology or hypnosis, Shermer keeps his focus on the central question: Where do we draw the line between solid science, pseudoscience, and the untamed territory in between? This is a detailed, multi-faceted exploration of these ever-shifting borderlands, as well as the fascinating people who populate them."—K.C. Cole, author of The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything

From the Publisher