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Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience

Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience

by Georges Charpak (Author), Georges Charpak (Author), Henri Broch (Author), Bart K. Holland (Translator)

  • Used

    Illustrated 2004

    $3.46
Synopsis

Can you walk over red-hot charcoal without burning your feet? Appear to stop the beating of your heart? Bend spoons using the power of your mind? In Debunked! Nobel Prize winner Georges Charpak and physics professor Henri Broch team up to show you the tricks of the trade and sleight of hand that keep astrologers, TV psychics, and spoon benders in business. Using only the simplest of science, the authors explore the effectiveness of horoscopes-the blander the better-and why, with a television audience in the millions, any strange, unlikely prediction is almost certain to come true. If such insider information does not impress your colleagues, why not pierce your tongue with a skewer or demonstrate your eerie powers by using telepathy and the telephone to get a distant friend to intuit the number and suit of a card picked at random. Charpak and Broch show you how. Not merely an expose of magic tricks, this book demonstrates how pseudoscientists use science, statistics, and psychology to bamboozle an audience-sometimes for fun, sometimes for profit. During the most scientifically advanced period in human history, belief in the paranormal and the supernatural is alarmingly common. Entertaining and enlightening, Debunked! is the antidote, vigorously asserting the virtues of doubt, skepticism, curiosity, and scientific knowledge. This lucid translation makes the arguments clear, understandable, and a pleasure to read.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
 Pages: 168
 Edition: Illustrated
 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 24 Jun 2004
ISBN 10: 0801878675
ISBN 13: 9780801878671
Book Overview: This book's motto might have been taken from Goya: 'The sleep of reason produces monsters.' The authors have a serious agenda-a critique of belief in the paranormal and the supernatural, and the irrational behavior of those who are taken in by such beliefs-but address it with a light and good-humored touch. The book provides entertaining and amusing reading while bringing about an understanding of how the simple application of probability theory and science explains 'amazing' coincidences and abilities. -- John M. Charap, Queen Mary University of London, author of Explaining the Universe

Media Reviews
Debunked! is short and highly readable. It tells good stories about human foolishness masquerading as science. It offers useful assistance to citizens trying to tell the difference between sense and nonsense... Charpak and Broch have done a fine job, sweeping out the money-changers from the temple of science and exposing their tricks. I recommend this book to believers and skeptics alike. It is good entertainment, whether or not you believe in astrology. -- Freeman J. Dyson * New York Review of Books *
Just as James Bond needed his Q to survive his enemies, so every working scientist needs this slim volume. At some time, I am sure, everyone will have found themselves in a sticky situation in which they are trapped at a party by a boring individual endlessly droning on about astrology, telekinesis or some other form of pseudoscientific gobbledegook. Like the gadgets produced by 007's personal boffin, this book provides a means of escape. It offers a simple scientific explanation for a wide range of supposedly paranormal phenomenon. Some are shown up as mere conjuring tricks, while beliefs such as astrology can be readily demolished by anyone with a passing knowledge of probability theory, let alone astronomy. The book arms the reader with arguments that can be tossed into some future conversation, quelling such disciples of irrationality while you make for the door. -- John Bonner * New Scientist *
Written in a jaunty tone, this excursion upon the seas of superstitious belief is a light, amusing voyage... Looking at the psychic power enabling one to levitate, walk safely across red-hot coals, or make astounding predictions, the authors point out how physics or simple probability explain things more convincingly than do amazing brain waves. Exposing the gullibility charlatans rely on, the authors' sardonic spirit will amuse readers even as it inducts them into the scientific mode of thought. * Booklist *
Delightful... [Charpak and Broch] show how the application of probability theory to such events is enlightening. -- Michael Shermer * Scientific American *
We have here a new book by two eminent scientists-three if you count the translator-that emphatically debunkes ESP, telekinesis, telepathy, dowsing and numerous other similar magic stunts. -- John Goodspeed * Easton Star Democrat *
The authors' reasoning, which includes all kinds of theoretical subtleties ('nutations,' 'precession of the equinoxes'), is quite beautiful. -- Jim Holt * Wall Street Journal *
Entertaining and amusing. -- Elizabeth Clements * Symmetry *
Charpak and Broch use their academic training to examine the logic and rationality of each case they dissect. I'm pleased to see the excellent book they've written... To become properly informed about a wide spectrum of paranormal and supernatural claims, one needs to be primed on the difference between real science and pseudoscience. -- James Randi * Physics Today *
One of those books I wish I'd written. -- James Randi * Physics Today *
I enjoyed reading this book... and was particularly interested to learn about purportedly paranormal events that have not been covered elsewhere. * Physics World *
Author Bio
Georges Charpak is a physicist at the European Center for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva and winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in physics. Henri Broch teaches physics and zetetics, the scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena, at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis.