Description
Book SynopsisAIDS is not caused by HIV. Coal and oil are not fossil fuels. Radiation exposure is good for you. Distributing more guns reduces crime. These ideas make headlines, but most educated people scoff at them. This title evaluates, for the general reader or student, nine seemingly far-out propositions culled from physics, biology, and social science.
Trade Review"Modern science, especially physics, is replete with outlandish ideas that defy common sense and intuition. It is almost impossible for the non-scientist to discriminate between the legitimately weird and the outright crackpot... Robert Ehrlich has assembled a fascinating collection of apparently crazy ideas, and subjected them to careful analysis... Ehrlich points out how statistics can be misleadingly presented ... and how the distinction between effects that are causally related and those that are merely correlated often gets blurred."--Paul Davies, Nature "Clear and lively... Ehrlich ... is entertaining, but the genuine value of his book lies in the analyses... An important addition to an underpopulated genre of science books: It critically examines both sides of interesting, important, and unsettled arguments."--William H. Ingham, Physics Today
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Introduction 3 2. More Guns Means Less Crime 13 3. AIDS Is Not Caused by HIV 33 4. Sun Exposure Is Beneficial 57 5. Low Doses of Nuclear Radiation Are Beneficial 73 6. The Solar System Has Two Suns 102 7. Oil, Coal, and Gas Have Abiogenic Origins 122 8. Time Travel Is Possible 146 9. Faster-than-Light Particles Exist 172 10. There Was No Big Bang 194 11. Epilogue 215 Notes to the Chapters 221 Bibliography 235 Index 239
