100 Hoaxes & Mistakes That Fooled Science


Book Description

Even experts get duped from time to time! The stories behind scientific fakes and mistakes, from crop circles to miracle cures and beyond. Science is an ongoing quest for knowledge filled with discoveries and experiments, trial and error. And occasionally, the errors can be whoppers—especially when hoaxers are involved. Some hoaxes are intended merely as well-intended humorous tricks, while others are serious frauds devised for personal gain of glory and riches. This book reveals the greatest science hoaxes and mistakes of all time. Discover the truth behind 100 of the most scandalous scientific errors and outright lies in this fascinating read brought to you by Popular Science—from the experiment that suggested time travel was possible, to the pursuit of alchemy, to rumors about red mercury and its mythical powers, it’s an entertaining journey through the history of science.




A Colossal Hoax


Book Description

In October 1869, as America stood on the brink of becoming a thoroughly modern nation, workers unearthed what appeared to be a petrified ten-foot giant on a remote farm in upstate New York. The discovery caused a sensation. Over the next several months, newspapers devoted daily headlines to the story and tens of thousands of Americans—including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the great showman P. T. Barnum—flocked to see the giant on exhibition. In the colossus, many saw evidence that their continent, and the tiny hamlet of Cardiff, had ties to Biblical history. American science also weighed in on the discovery, and in doing so revealed its own growing pains, including the shortcomings of traditional education, the weaknesses of archaeological methodology, as well as the vexing presence of amateurs and charlatans within its ranks. A national debate ensued over the giant's origins, and was played out in the daily press. Ultimately, the discovery proved to be an elaborate hoax. Still, the story of the Cardiff Giant reveals many things about America in the post-Civil War years. After four years of destruction on an unimagined scale, Americans had increasingly turned their attention to the renewal of progress. But the story of the Cardiff Giant seemed to shed light on a complicated, mysterious past, and for a time scientists, clergymen, newspaper editors, and ordinary Americans struggled to make sense of it. Hucksters, of course, did their best to take advantage of it. The Cardiff Giant was one of the leading questions of the day, and how citizens answered it said much about Americans in 1869 as well as about America more generally.




100 Inventions That Changed the World


Book Description

From safety pins to steam engines to cell phones, the stories behind innovations that have transformed everyday lives. We take thousands of inventions for granted, using them daily and enjoying their benefits. But how much do we really know about their origins and development? This absorbing new book tells the stories behind the inventions that have changed the world, with details about: Convenience items, such as safety pins, toothbrushes, and bifocals Weapons of war, including explosives, gunpowder, and shrapnel shells Industrial advances, such as the steam engine and the power loom for weaving Transportation advances, including the airplane, the diesel engine, the automobile, and the air-inflated rubber tire Electronic marvels, including color television, the microprocessor, the personal computer, the compact disc, and the cell phone Medical advances, from antiseptic surgery to the electron microscope...and much more You’ll also learn more about many inventors and pioneers of science and technology—including Eli Whitney, James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Bessemer, Thomas Edison, J.B. Dunlop, the Wright Brothers, Werner von Braun, Jonas Salk, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and others.




The Great Cat Massacre - A History of Britain in 100 Mistakes


Book Description

In 1914, a train pulled into a provincial British railway station. The porter, a curious chap, asked the regiment of soldiers where they were from. "Ross-shire," one called down, but the porter heard "Russia." And so began a rumor that led to Germany losing World War I. Often the history we learn at school is only half the story. We hear of heroic deeds and visionary leaders, but we never hear about the people who turned up late for court and thereby changed the law, or who stood in the wrong queue at university and accidentally won a Nobel Prize. "The Great Cat Massacre: A History of Britain in 100 Mistakes" demonstrates that the nation is as much a product of error as design. Through chapters on religion, law, culture, war, science, and politics, it reveals such things as how an edict from Pope Gregory IX helped spread the Black Death, how the sister of cricketer John Willes invented overarm bowling, and how, had a letter not been lost, Disraeli might never have become prime minister. This book is history told through human failings, schoolboy errors, bad luck, and extraordinary consequences; a history of mishearing, misdiagnosis, and misinterpretation a history that you won t find in the textbooks."




Reign of Error


Book Description

From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, “whistle-blower extraordinaire” (The Wall Street Journal), author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System (“Important and riveting”—Library Journal), The Language Police (“Impassioned . . . Fiercely argued . . . Every bit as alarming as it is illuminating”—The New York Times), and other notable books on education history and policy—an incisive, comprehensive look at today’s American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools. ​In Reign of Error, Diane Ravitch argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement but a concerted effort to destroy public schools in this country. She makes clear that, contrary to the claims being made, public school test scores and graduation rates are the highest they’ve ever been, and dropout rates are at their lowest point. ​She argues that federal programs such as George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama’s Race to the Top set unreasonable targets for American students, punish schools, and result in teachers being fired if their students underperform, unfairly branding those educators as failures. She warns that major foundations, individual billionaires, and Wall Street hedge fund managers are encouraging the privatization of public education, some for idealistic reasons, others for profit. Many who work with equity funds are eyeing public education as an emerging market for investors. ​Reign of Error begins where The Death and Life of the Great American School System left off, providing a deeper argument against privatization and for public education, and in a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, putting forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve it. She makes clear what is right about U.S. education, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and how we can fix it. ​For Ravitch, public school education is about knowledge, about learning, about developing character, and about creating citizens for our society. It’s about helping to inspire independent thinkers, not just honing job skills or preparing people for college. Public school education is essential to our democracy, and its aim, since the founding of this country, has been to educate citizens who will help carry democracy into the future.




100 Classic Science Fiction Stories: Volume Two


Book Description

100 science fiction stories make up this massive collection. Works and authors include: The Dictator by Milton Lesser Diplomatic Immunity by Robert Sheckley Direct Wire by Clee Garson Disaster Revisited by Darius John Granger Disqualified by Charles Louis Fontenay Dogfight--1973 by Dallas McCord Reynolds The Doorway by Evelyn E. Smith The Dope on Mars by John Michael Sharkey The Double Spy by Dan T. Moore Double Take by Richard Wilson Dr Heidenhoff's Process Droozle by Frank Banta Duel on Syrtis by Poul William Anderson The Dueling Machine by Benjamin William Bova and Myron R. Lewis Earthsmith by Milton Lesser The Eel by Miriam Allen DeFord The Ego Machine by Henry Kuttner Egocentric Orbit by John Cory The Einstein See-Saw by Miles John Breuer Elegy by Charles Beaumont The Envoy, Her by Horace Brown Fyfe Equation of Doom by Gerald Vance The Eternal Wall by Raymond Zinke Gallun The Ethical Way by Joseph Farrell The Executioner by Frank Riley Exile from Space by Judith Merril Expediter by Dallas McCord Reynolds The Eyes Have It by Philip Kindred Dick Fair and Warmer by E. G. von Wald Faithfully Yours by Lou Tabakow Far from Home by J.A. Taylor A Feast of Demons by William Morrison Fee of the Frontier by Horace Brown Fyfe Feet Of Clay by Phillip Hoskins Feline Red by Robert Sampson Felony by James Causey Field Trip by Gene Hunter Per Cent Prophet by Gordon Randall Garrett A Filbert Is a Nut by Rick Raphael A Fine Fix by R. C. Noll The First Day of Spring by Mari Wolf Flamedown by Horace Brown Fyfe Flight From Tomorrow by Henry Beam Piper Through Tomorrow by Stanton Arthur Coblentz Fly By Night by Arthur Dekker Savage The Flying Cuspidors by V. R. Francis Foreign Hand Tie by Gordon Randall Garrett Forever by Robert Sheckley Forget Me Nearly by Floyd L. Wallace Forsyte's Retreat by Winston Marks Foundling on Venus by John de Courcy and Dorothy de Courcy The Fourth Invasion by Henry Josephs Freudian Slip by Franklin Abel The Frightened Planet by Sidney Austen Frigid Fracas by Dallas McCord Reynolds G-r-r-r...! by Roger Arcot The Gallery by Roger Phillips Graham Gambler's World by John Keith Laumer Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith Generals Help Themselves by M. C. Pease Genesis by H. Beam Piper George Loves Gistla by James McKimmey Get Out of Our Skies! by E. K. Jarvis The Gift Bearer by Charles Louis Fontenay A Gift For Terra by Fox B. Holden The Glory of Ippling by Helen M. Urban The Good Neighbors by Edgar Pangborn Goodbye, Dead Man! by Tom W. Harris Graveyard of Dreams by Henry Beam Piper The Graveyard of Space by Milton Lesser The Great Potlatch Riots by Allen Kim Lang Hall of Mirrors by Fredric Brown Ham Sandwich by James H. Schmitz The Hammer of Thor by Charles Willard Diffin Hanging by a Thread by Gordon Randall Garrett Ending by Fredric Brown and Dallas McCord Reynolds The Happy Man by Gerald Wilburn Page The Happy Unfortunate by Robert Silverberg Hard Guy by H. B. Carleton Hate Disease by William Fitzgerald Jenkins The Heads of Apex by Francis Flagg Heist Job on Thizar by Gordon Randall Garrett The Hell Ship by Raymond Alfred Palmer The Cosmos by Clifford Donald Simak The Helpful Hand of God by Tom Godwin Helpfully Yours by Evelyn E. Smith Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses by Dwight V. Swain High Dragon Bump by Don Thompson High Man by Jay Clarke The Hills of Home by Alfred Coppel The Hitch Hikers by Vernon L. McCain The Hohokam Dig by Theodore Pratt The Holes and John Smith by Edward W. Ludwig Holes, Incorporated by L. Major Reynolds Home is Where You Left It by Adam Chase Homesick by Lyn Venable Homo Inferior by Mari Wolf The Honored Prophet by William E. Bentley The Hoofer by Walter M. Miller




The Great Global Warming Blunder


Book Description

"The Great Global Warming Blunder provides a simple explanation for why forecasts of a global warming Armageddon constitute a major scientific faux pas: climate researchers have mixed up cause and effect when they have analyzed cloud behavior. Combining illustrations from everyday experience with state-of-the-art satellite measurements, Roy W. Spencer reveals how these scientists have been fooled by Mother Nature into believing that the Earth's climate system is very sensitive to humanity's production of carbon dioxide through the use of fossil fuels. He presents evidence that recent warming, rather than being the fault of humans, is a result of chaotic, internal natural cycles that have been causing periods of warming and cooling for thousands of years" --Cover, p. 2.




Fashionable Nonsense


Book Description

In 1996 physicist Alan Sokal published an essay in Social Text--an influential academic journal of cultural studies--touting the deep similarities between quantum gravitational theory and postmodern philosophy. Soon thereafter, the essay was revealed as a brilliant parody, a catalog of nonsense written in the cutting-edge but impenetrable lingo of postmodern theorists. The event sparked a furious debate in academic circles and made the headlines of newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. In Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, Sokal and his fellow physicist Jean Bricmont expand from where the hoax left off. In a delightfully witty and clear voice, the two thoughtfully and thoroughly dismantle the pseudo-scientific writings of some of the most fashionable French and American intellectuals. More generally, they challenge the widespread notion that scientific theories are mere "narrations" or social constructions.




The Greatest Hoax


Book Description

Inhofer presents his perspectives and opinions on the proposed "carbon tax" and energy regulations currently part of the global warming debate among members of the Congress and the U.S. government.




One Small Step?


Book Description

From the very first manned flight into orbit right up to the present day, there have been serious anomalies in the official narrative of the conquest of space. Bestselling author Gerhard Wisnewski dissects the history in minute detailfrom the first Russian missions to the final American moon project of Apollo 17looking at films, photos, radio communications, personal statements, and other available material. Using forensic methods of investigation, he pieces together a complex jigsaw depicting a disturbing picture of falsifications, lies, and fakery in the Cold War struggle for supremacy between the Soviet Union and the United States. The evidence he presents casts serious doubt on the possibility of humans ever having walked on the moon.