Good piece of popular science.
Will we ever find the ninety-six percent of the universe that is
missing? Will tomorrow bring an answer to the scientific mysteries of
today? While taking readers on an entertaining tour d'horizon of
today's strangest scientific findings, Michael Brooks argues that the
things we don't understand are the key to what we are about to
discover.In 2008, science can only really account for four percent of
our universe, and the rest, well, just seems to be missing. The
effects of homeopathy don't go away under rigorous scientific
conditions. Thirty years on, no one has an explanation for a
seemingly intelligent signal received from outer space. The speed of
light seems to have changed over the lifetime of the universe. The US
Department of Energy is re-examining cold fusion (a nuclear reaction
in which atoms release more energy than they consume) because the
evidence is too solid to ignore. The placebo effect is put to work in
medicine while doctors can't agree on whether it even exists...In an
age when science is supposed to be king, scientists are beset by
experimental results they simply cannot explain. But, if the past is
anything to go by, these anomalies contain the seeds of future
scientific revolutions.This mind-boggling but entirely accessible
survey of the outer-limits of human knowledge is based on a short
article Michael Brooks wrote for the "New Scientist" in 2005. It
became the most circulated "New Scientist" feature ever. He has now
dug deeply into these mysteries, and the results of his
investigations point to an exciting future for scientific discovery.
<http://www.amazon.de/Things-That-Dont-Make-Sense/dp/1861978170>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/08/13-things-that-dont-make-sense-most.htm>monochrom
at 8/19/2009 06:23:00 PM
