Bad science
by Gary Taubes · first published 1993
4mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2011–2023first – last mentioned
50% recommend25% neutral25% critical
At 1:00 P.M., on March 23, 1989, two obscure scientists at the University of Utah announced that they had discovered salvation in a test tube - cold nuclear fusion. The technology promised sale, cheap, limitless energy, and the press played it as the scientific breakthrough of the century. It would become instead a fiasco of epidemic proportions, an unforgettable morality tale in the scientific method: what happens when reason is perverted by hope and greed. Gary Taubes's Bad Science is the vivid, dramatic, and definitive story of the astonishing quest for cold fusion, from its premature birth
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I have read several of Gary Taubes books, including Good Calories, Bad Calories that he mentioned and his earlier book (massive tome, might be better) Bad Science on the cold fusion debacle. He might tend to get a little carried away with enthusiasm for his subject at times, but they have all been both fascinating reading and well documented.
on “Gary Taubes: The Inanity of Overeating ” ↗Gary Taubes's Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion is pretty good.
on “Breaking Superconductor News” ↗…are the children of a researcher who lost weight when he changed his diet, an Enron billionaire, and Gary Taubes, a science journalist with a history of being very, very partisan. (No, really, go read Bad Science and then track down Polywater by Felix Franks---different scientific episodes, but with roughly similar hoo-ha involved; I'm talking about the style of the two discussions.
on “Hard Science About Diet” ↗There was an interesting (and entertaining) book written about the Cold Fusion Hype, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science:_The_Short_Life_and... From Gary Taubes' (the author) website: Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion is book of science history by Gary Taubes about the early years (1989–1991) of…
on “CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment” ↗