A survival guide to the misinformation age
Subtitle: scientific habits of mind
By: David J. Helfand
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9780231168724
Subjects: Missing observations (Statistics); Science; Methodology; Statistics; Scientific Errors
Description: "This book provides an inoculation against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. From dissolving our fear of numbers and demystifying graphs, to elucidating the key concepts of probability and the use of precise language and logic, Helfand supplies an essential set of apps for the pre-frontal cortex while making science both accessible and entertaining."--Publisher marketing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Information, misinformation, and our planet's future; title: A walk in the park; title: What is science?; title: A sense of scale; title: Interlude 1. Numbers; title: Discoveries on the back of an envelope; title: Insights in lines and dots; title: Interlude 2. Logic and language; title: Expecting the improbable; title: Lies, damned lies, and statistics; title: Correlation, causation ... confusion and clarity; title: Definitional features of science; title: Applying scientific habits of mind to Earth's future; title: What isn't science; title: The triumph of misinformation, the perils of ignorance; title: The unfinished cathedral; title: Appendix. Practicing scientific habits of mind.