IDS 101: Science Behind the News

Pigliucci separates the fact from the fantasy in this entertaining exploration of the nature of science and the borderlands of fringe science.

Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. He has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window. But he’s not here just to tell you what’s wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample sizes, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You’re about to feel a whole lot better.

Magic, Mystery, and Science presents the occult as a "third stream" of belief, as important to the shaping of Western civilization as Greek rationalism or Judeo-Christianity. The occult seeks explanations in a world that is living and intelligent—quite unlike the one supposed by science. By taking these beliefs seriously, while keeping an eye on science, this book aims to capture some of the power of the occult.

More than 300 original behind-the-scenes production photographs shot during the filming of the show are accompanied by insightful captions, rare documents, and exclusive interviews with producers, directors, writers, and actors who worked on the series.

Ivory Bridges examines governmental science policy and scientists' voluntary public-interest associations.The examination of science policy is guided by the notion of "Jeffersonian science" -- basic research on topics identified as being in the national interest.

In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims.

In these days of ever-increasing specialization, it is important to gain a broad appreciation of science. Entertaining and informative, Scientifically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations, Second Edition contains the words and wisdom of several hundred scientists, writers, philosophers, poets, and academics. The largest compilation of published science quotations available, the book presents quotations that give depth and breadth to science, and provides the visions and styles of scientists past and present.

From Frankenstein to futuristic feminist utopias, Decoding Gender in Science Fiction examines the ways science fiction writers have incorporated, explored, and revised conventional notions of sexual difference. Attebery traces a fascinating history of men's and women's writing that covertly or overtly investigates conceptions of gender, suggesting new perspectives on the genre.

Noting that science fiction is characterized by an investment in the proliferation of racial difference, Isiah Lavender III argues that racial alterity is fundamental to the genre's narrative strategy. Race in American Science Fiction offers a systematic classification of ways that race appears and how it is silenced in science fiction, while developing a critical vocabulary designed to focus attention on often-overlooked racial implications. These focused readings of science fiction contextualize race.