 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in CORRUPTED SCIENCE: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The main ways that people can corrupt science - or at least try to - are through hoax and fraud. Both may be perpetrated by laymen or scientists and also through ideological and political corruption; the intent in both instances is to mislead the public. This sequel to Grant's ''Discarded Science - Ideas That Seemed Good at the Time'' - introduces the world of fraud and deception rather than the gentler realms of mistake and ignorance - a serious and timely theme. For everyone interested in the history of scientific thinking and the evolution of ideas and theories.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read Mr. Grant's earlier book, Discarded Science, when it came out last year, and was recently pleased to find he was at a convention I attended in the US. There were copies of this companion book in the dealer room of the convention, so I bought one and he signed it for me. I am very glad I bought it.
This book is a gripping read. The first part is full of fascinating information on the shadier parts of the history of science - famous scientists who did not do what they claimed to do, or who cheated their results, or stole the credit that should have gone to someone else. But that is just the warm up. It then looks at some of the crazy schemes the military has backed, often with billions of USD, schemes that any good scientist could have told them right up front could not work. Even this does nothing to prepare you for the second half of the book, which is riveting in a different way - and sometimes horrifying. Somehow Mr. Grant manages to keep a sort of dark, sorrowful humor as he looks at the human tragedies created when science is corrupted by things like racism and religious bigotry.
There are true horrors in the long final chapter, which is about the deliberate corruption of science by political ideologists. He looks at three regimes in detail: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and George W. Bush's US. The most horrific bits are about the medical experiments the Nazis (like Dr. Mengele) did in the concentration camps, often with children as the experimental subjects. The abuse of psychiatry by the Soviet Communists of Stalin's time and later are horrific too. Though the third part of the chapter has nothing like these, it is horrific in its own way because there are so many likenesses between the modern US abuse of science and what the Nazis and Communists did. Especially frightening is the way the US Government has lied about things like global warming and atmosphere pollution that could effect every one of us.
At the end of Corrupted Science, Mr. Grant says: "Unless we, the public of any and every nation, maintain a constant vigilance, then we can expect authoritarian regimes everywhere to recognize the benefits - however illusory those benefits might in fact be - of corrupting science at its roots. If we let them get away with it, then we can indeed expect the arrival of, in every sense of the term, a new dark age."
I think he is right.
This book is a gripping read. The first part is full of fascinating information on the shadier parts of the history of science - famous scientists who did not do what they claimed to do, or who cheated their results, or stole the credit that should have gone to someone else. But that is just the warm up. It then looks at some of the crazy schemes the military has backed, often with billions of USD, schemes that any good scientist could have told them right up front could not work. Even this does nothing to prepare you for the second half of the book, which is riveting in a different way - and sometimes horrifying. Somehow Mr. Grant manages to keep a sort of dark, sorrowful humor as he looks at the human tragedies created when science is corrupted by things like racism and religious bigotry.
There are true horrors in the long final chapter, which is about the deliberate corruption of science by political ideologists. He looks at three regimes in detail: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and George W. Bush's US. The most horrific bits are about the medical experiments the Nazis (like Dr. Mengele) did in the concentration camps, often with children as the experimental subjects. The abuse of psychiatry by the Soviet Communists of Stalin's time and later are horrific too. Though the third part of the chapter has nothing like these, it is horrific in its own way because there are so many likenesses between the modern US abuse of science and what the Nazis and Communists did. Especially frightening is the way the US Government has lied about things like global warming and atmosphere pollution that could effect every one of us.
At the end of Corrupted Science, Mr. Grant says: "Unless we, the public of any and every nation, maintain a constant vigilance, then we can expect authoritarian regimes everywhere to recognize the benefits - however illusory those benefits might in fact be - of corrupting science at its roots. If we let them get away with it, then we can indeed expect the arrival of, in every sense of the term, a new dark age."
I think he is right.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I think people who are interested in science and its achievements like to think that it's relatively unbiased in a political sense - it's always been accepted that some level of bias exists. This book shows that the political interference that has been in existence for many, many years is actually getting much worse not better even in democratic based societies. It also covers a great deal of corruption for personal gain so it's not just politics.
Overall a good read for anyone who wants to understand more about why science is becoming corrupted by governments to use it for their own ends and the impact that this is having.
Overall a good read for anyone who wants to understand more about why science is becoming corrupted by governments to use it for their own ends and the impact that this is having.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
John Grant's CORRUPTED SCIENCE is an important book. It's entertaining and informative, a must for anyone interested in the history of science. Until I read it, I had no idea that test results had been faked by the revered likes of Ptolemy, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton.
This is fascinating stuff, but more significantly, CORRUPTED SCIENCE exposes the hypocrisy and sham science perpetrated today for questionable purposes, principally in the United States.
Grant divides his book into six chapters, and further subdivides them in user-friendly fashion to make his case. "Fraudulent Scientists," "Seeing What They Wanted to See," "Military Madness," "The One True Book," "Ideology Trumps Science," and "The Political Corruption of Science" delve into the myriad ways that the quest for truth has been subverted, sometimes innocently but more often by design.
The concluding chapter's three sections---"Hitler's Germany," Stalin's Russia," and "Bush's America"---examine the most egregious cases of willful governmental scientific subornation by powerful national governments for ideological and religious purposes. Grant details efforts by the Bush administration to hide the facts of global warming, a fraud perpetrated to safeguard the enormous profits of the energy industry, and to discredit the theory of evolution for ideological purposes.
Grant argues convincingly that the harm done by the Bush Administration will take generations to repair. This is a disturbin, but inescapable conclusion, and Grant's copious research drives home the reality that ideologues have been in charge of American scientific institutions since 2001 as a result of Bush's dubious electoral victory.
It's disturbing stuff, but written in a compelling and persuasive style. The book is an attractive hardcover, and it's offered at a very modest price. It should be read by everyone who's serious about the future of science and, indeed, of the Earth itself.
This is fascinating stuff, but more significantly, CORRUPTED SCIENCE exposes the hypocrisy and sham science perpetrated today for questionable purposes, principally in the United States.
Grant divides his book into six chapters, and further subdivides them in user-friendly fashion to make his case. "Fraudulent Scientists," "Seeing What They Wanted to See," "Military Madness," "The One True Book," "Ideology Trumps Science," and "The Political Corruption of Science" delve into the myriad ways that the quest for truth has been subverted, sometimes innocently but more often by design.
The concluding chapter's three sections---"Hitler's Germany," Stalin's Russia," and "Bush's America"---examine the most egregious cases of willful governmental scientific subornation by powerful national governments for ideological and religious purposes. Grant details efforts by the Bush administration to hide the facts of global warming, a fraud perpetrated to safeguard the enormous profits of the energy industry, and to discredit the theory of evolution for ideological purposes.
Grant argues convincingly that the harm done by the Bush Administration will take generations to repair. This is a disturbin, but inescapable conclusion, and Grant's copious research drives home the reality that ideologues have been in charge of American scientific institutions since 2001 as a result of Bush's dubious electoral victory.
It's disturbing stuff, but written in a compelling and persuasive style. The book is an attractive hardcover, and it's offered at a very modest price. It should be read by everyone who's serious about the future of science and, indeed, of the Earth itself.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
