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Ten Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet!): A Guide to Science's Greatest Mysteries

Ten Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet!): A Guide to Science's Greatest Mysteries
By Michael Hanlon

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Product Description

From the author of the bestselling The Science of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comes another incredible trip to an even more mysterious terrain. Michael Hanlon identifies ten scientific questions that we simply can't seem to answer and explains why these compelling mysteries will remain unsolved for years to come
How did life begin? Why are there two sexes? Where did language originate? In Hanlon's characteristically witty style, he ponders the ways these questions have persisted in frustrating the best minds and asks what might be needed to get to the bottom of it all. From politics to lack of technology, each question has its own set of circumstances holding it back. By exploring these unanswerable questions, Hanlon exposes some of science's greatest failings and missteps--and charts a hopeful direction for getting science back on the road to discovery.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #939744 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-05-29
  • Released on: 2007-05-29
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 208 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A truly thought-provoking and fascinating exploration of areas of science that aren't fully understood"--www.popularscience.co.uk

"A lovely book...you hear some pretty class stories"--Anita Anand, BBC Radio Five Live

About the Author

Michael Hanlon is the author of The Science of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Worlds of Galileo, and The Real Mars.

Customer Reviews

Decent enough3
About: Hanlon (Science Editor at the Daily Mail newspaper) explains 10 unanswered questions in science. Not including the introduction, there are 10 chapters, one for each question:

Is Fido a zombie? (that is, how intelligent, self-aware and clever are animals?)
Why is time so weird?
Can I live forever please?
What are we going to do with the stupid?
What is the dark side? (think dark energy and dark matter, not Darth Vader)
Is the universe alive?
Are you the same person you were a minute ago?
Why are we all so fat...and does it really matter?
Can we really be sure the paranormal is bunkum?
What is reality, really?

Pros: Quick read (if you don't like one topic, the next topic will be upon you quickly.) Nice range of questions and fields of science covered. Scientists you would expect to be mentioned are (i.e. Elizabeth Loftus on memory, Richard Dawkins on pseudoscience, and Stephen Hawking on the Big Bang) Mostly accessible writing on heady topics.

Cons: It doesn't appear that all references are cited. A conclusion would have been helpful, rather than an abrupt end of the book when the last topic is explained. Suggestions for further reading on each topic would have been welcome as well. Some topics get bogged down (albeit necessarily) with complexities and jargon.

Grade: B

SOCRATIC CANDOR & CUTTING EDGE SCIENCE5
Umberto Eco was right: Science has all the trappings of just another religion. A strict belief system and lists of virtues and sins; acolytes and authoritative high-priests; dogmas and unquestionable Truths. And like any religion, it has its logical limits.

Michael Hanlon has been the Science editor for DAILY MAIL, DAILY EXPRESS and INDEPENDENT. For a journalist he has a firm grasp of the latest scientific discoveries and their philosophical implications. This book is an excellent example of this.

The book addresses some cardinal questions (from consciousness and the nature of time to the emergence of life and the perception of reality) and some marginal ones (the causes of modern obesity epidemic and the paranormal theories).

Written with a deep understanding of the sciences involved, Hanlon manages to speak to both scientists and laymen alike. References are kept to a minimum and explanations are complete but far from apocryphal.

RECOMMENDED!

Easy to read book takes the reader to science's cutting edge & demands more; a glimpse of the outer limits4
Michael Hanlon writes clearly on challenging subjects, which sets this book apart from the average book on science. The reader does not need any specialized knowledge to understand the book's description of the latest scientific achievements, and to look wonderingly toward what might lie beyond. The prose is intelligent, but not arrogant, even as it asks what may appear as thorny questions. Each of the ten chapters explores a question and discusses the extent to which science has come close or stayed away from that question. The chapters cover a variety of subjects that confront different branches of science. The book presents just the right amount of information and questioning in a comfortable, almost always entertaining tone, which occasionally gets conversational. The book's adoption of popular lingo (e.g., in a chapter entitled "What are we going to do with the stupid?") can turn off some sensitive readers.