13 things that don't make sense
Subtitle: the most intriguing scientific mysteries of our time
By: Michael Brooks
Publisher: Profile
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781861978172
Subjects: Science; Miscellanea
Other titles: Thirteen things that don't make sense
Description: Ninety-six per cent of the universe is missing. The effects of homeopathy don't go away under rigorous scientific conditions. The laws of nature aren't what they used to be. Thirty years on, no one has an explanation for a seemingly intelligent signal received from outer space. The US Department of Energy is re-examining cold fusion because the experimental evidence seems too solid to ignore. The placebo effect is put to work in medicine while doctors can't agree whether it even exists. In an age when science is supposed to be king, scientists are beset by experimental results they simply can't explain. But, if the past is anything to go by, these anomalies contain the seeds of future revolutions. While taking readers on an entertaining tour d'horizon of the strangest of scientific findings - involving everything from our lack of free will to Martian methane that offers new evidence of life on the planet - the author argues that the things we don't understand are the key to what we are about to discover. -- Publisher details.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1.The Missing Universe; title: 2.The Pioneer Anomaly; title: 3.Varying Constants; title: 4.Cold Fusion; title: 5.Life; title: 6.Viking; title: 7.The Wow! Signal; title: 8.A Giant Virus; title: 9.Death; title: 10.Sex; title: 11.Free Will; title: 12.The Placebo Effect; title: 13.Homeopathy.