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Weighing the Soul: The Evolution of Scientific Beliefs
 
 

Weighing the Soul: The Evolution of Scientific Beliefs (Hardcover)

by Len Fisher (Author) "This book tells the stories of scientists whose ideas appeared bizarre, peculiar or downright daft to their contemporaries, but who stuck to their guns through..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; First Edition edition (28 Oct 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0297645552
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297645559
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 654,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

GOOD BOOK GUIDE (1/11/04)
'A witty insight into the impossible.'

Review
'A witty insight into the impossible.' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE (1/11/04) )

'Len Fisher...takes us on a very accessible and entertaining tour of various historical moments where contemporary commonsense ideas about how the world worked clashed with scientific findings...WEIGHING THE SOUL is a mine of delightful oddities.' (Jerome Burne FT MAGAZINE (4.12.04) )

'On the surface this book is about quirky ideas, such as how to cure a headache by zapping yourself with an electric eel...Under the surface, it's about the evolution of scientific beliefs...While the tone is quite jolly, there's serious science among the slapstick. A good read for the curious.' (Sylvia Rainsford FOCUS MAGAZINE (March 2005) )

'...entertaining and astute...An engaging and relaxed, personal style to the text make this book easy to read. No matter what your academic background it is a genuine pleasure to read.' (Stuart Williams CHEMISTRY WORLD (February 2005) )

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
This book tells the stories of scientists whose ideas appeared bizarre, peculiar or downright daft to their contemporaries, but who stuck to their guns through ridicule, oppression and persecution. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Weighing the Soul: The Evolution of Scientific Beliefs
75% buy the item featured on this page:
Weighing the Soul: The Evolution of Scientific Beliefs 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life
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How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
£7.99

 

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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars My Review on the Chapter 1 "Weighting the Soul" of the book , 9 Mar 2007
By Masayoshi Ishida "Non-Materialist" (Tokaimura, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The book may be educative for lay readers on the current "Mainstream Science," but I have almost completed my paper for refuting the author's 'Convection Current' theory for trying to refute the 100 year old speculation of "the weight of soul substance" by physician Duncan MacDougall. Abstract of my paper follows:
Abstract: A scientific rebuttal has been given against a recently (in 2004) suggested "Convection Current" theory for explaining the unexplained sudden loss of weight of patients upon their deaths in the Duncan MacDougall's experiment published in 1907. Because the theory was originated from a review of the Count Rumford's experiment of "Weighing the Heat" in the 1780s, a review of the experiment has been given with thermo-hydraulic analyses. Also given are analyses of the MacDougall's experiment to examine the theory. These analyses have shown that there is no possibility for the convection air currents to explain the MacDougall's data, because (1) there is no possibility of a sudden occurrence of a change in the convection currents upon human death because of the thermal inertia of dead body with a shortest time constant of 4 hours, (2) convection air current required to hydrodynamically compensate the reported apparent loss of weight (10 to 70 gf) is too energetic (30 to 104 cm/s updraft required against the 1 to 2 m2 bed bottom or more than 2 m/s downdraft on the weight) to be realized upon human death, and (3) the theory is wrong from the start because the suggested "convection currents" definitely give results that are contrary to the experimental data of both Rumford's and MacDougall's. A speculative idea has been described about how to understand the MacDougall's results based on the existing psychical knowledge.
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