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198th out of 594 books
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1,306 voters
13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
Ninety-six per cent of the universe is missing. The effects of homeopathy don’t go away under rigorous scientific conditions. The laws of nature aren’t what they used to be. Thirty years on, no one has an explanation for a seemingly intelligent signal received from outer space. The US Department of Energy is re-examining cold fusion because the experimental evidence seems...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
August 12th 2008
by Doubleday Canada
(first published August 2008)
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Thirteen things that don’t make sense
I worried about starting this book – worried much more than I ought to have worried – but worried nonetheless. I mean, things could only be bad. Here was a book that was going to tell me about thirteen things that required a ‘paradigm shift’ in science. It was the number 13 that bothered me more than anything else. The world is full of morons and one of the surest ways of spotting such a moron is via numerology. Crystals are also good, well, as is homeopathy....more
I worried about starting this book – worried much more than I ought to have worried – but worried nonetheless. I mean, things could only be bad. Here was a book that was going to tell me about thirteen things that required a ‘paradigm shift’ in science. It was the number 13 that bothered me more than anything else. The world is full of morons and one of the surest ways of spotting such a moron is via numerology. Crystals are also good, well, as is homeopathy....more
In 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, Michael Brooks takes a brief look at 13 thorny problems which science has no good solution to. The problems are explained in simple terms, and include such things as death, sex, life, dark matter, and the placebo effect. What Brooks shows is that despite the best efforts of generations of scientists, and all the marvels of modern technology, we are far from understanding even such basic things as what the universe is made of and what it means to be alive.
A re...more
A re...more
I really enjoyed this book. In a world where most geographical frontiers have already been explored it's inspiring to read about the wild west of science where our knowledge is small and great discoveries are still to be made.
The author did a good job of interweaving the 13 things so the book felt like a single work and not 13 distinct essays. There are interesting humans elements to the book. It's fascinating how the careers of so many scientists were affected by their 'discoveries.' The final...more
The author did a good job of interweaving the 13 things so the book felt like a single work and not 13 distinct essays. There are interesting humans elements to the book. It's fascinating how the careers of so many scientists were affected by their 'discoveries.' The final...more
The further into the book I read the more I got into it as it progressed from the cosmological to the physical to the biological. Most intriguing to me were the looks at cold fusion, free will, the placebo effect, and homeopathy. With thirteen areas examined, including life, sex and death, there is probably something here for everyone. Everyone, except those who are unwilling to challenge their assumptions.
A decent overview of some the unsolved questions that modern science is currently puzzling over (how to explain all the "missing" matter in the universe) or lacks the data to answer conclusively any time soon (is there life on other planets? do we really have free will?). Then there are a few chapters concerning what might be described as fringe science (e.g. cold fusion, the placebo effect, homeopathic medicine). While I appreciate the spirit of inquiry, I suspect that homeopathic medicine is p...more
Point 12 was about placebo and sugar pill efficacy and this last chapter concerns homeopathic practices. I have fully enjoyed this book as much as The Barmaids Brain by Jay Ingram and I will not be deleting this file - it will be popped into a re-read folder. Happiness indeed.
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Alien hand syndrome could be a little awkward.
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All of this is interesting but I find the chapters on virus and old age entirely captivating - fully recommended.
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hahaha - there was a message received by Big Ear SETI(t...more
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Alien hand syndrome could be a little awkward.
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All of this is interesting but I find the chapters on virus and old age entirely captivating - fully recommended.
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hahaha - there was a message received by Big Ear SETI(t...more
This is, all in all, pretty weak. There are certainly some interesting things raised in the book - good summaries of some of the alternative theories raised to explain things like the prevalence of dark matter, and so on. At the same time, science has moved on a fair bit since the book was written. The Pioneer Anomaly, for example, has been explained, to the apparent satisfaction of scientists. The experiments supposedly debunking free will have, possibly, been shown to be deeply problematic and...more
I got this as an audiobook, and I almost stopped listening to it because it begins with astrology and goes straight to quantum physics--my two least favorite fields of science. My friend advised me to continue listening, and I'm glad I did, because the narrative segues beautifully into the origins of life, the origins of death, and the origins of sex. It even talks about medicine (the placebo effect and homeopathy), which always fascinates me.
I can't really summarize the points made in this book...more
I can't really summarize the points made in this book...more
13 Things That Don't Make Sense is a quick overview of some of the current questions that are still left unanswered by science. The role of the book is important in that it nicely outlines a few areas of our ignorance but I feel that some things were skipped while others were played up. I also feel that the book succumbs to a bit of false equivocation but does so in the spirit of "everything's not quite solved".
The section on the dark matter problem gives excess weight to modified newtonian dyna...more
The section on the dark matter problem gives excess weight to modified newtonian dyna...more
This book probably would have gotten 5 stars instead of 4 if I understood more of it, but what I got was a lot of fun. This is stuff that is consistent but why? The expanding of our universe, and when they got to the equations, I just duh-ed out! Dang though this stuff is cool, I wish I was smarter in physics. They really could have put more in this book and it would have been fine, because the stuff that I did get it was well presented and fascinating. We've come so far and then something just...more
Brooks gives a quick set of examples of things science doesn't have an answer for ... yet.
I found it difficult to quantify Brook's thoughts towards science and scientists. On the one hand, he seems to be mocking them, pointing out that nothing can be wholly explained, even to the smartest people in the world. He also likes to regale the reader with tales about how these smart people have difficulty doing things that would befuddle the rest of us - like a counter intuitive control for an elevator...more
I found it difficult to quantify Brook's thoughts towards science and scientists. On the one hand, he seems to be mocking them, pointing out that nothing can be wholly explained, even to the smartest people in the world. He also likes to regale the reader with tales about how these smart people have difficulty doing things that would befuddle the rest of us - like a counter intuitive control for an elevator...more
Overall I enjoyed this book. I feel that the early chapters about the mysteries of physics seemed like the ones in which the author was the most familiar. This would make sense, as the author is a PhD physicist. I particularly enjoyed learning about the mystery of the Pioneer spacecraft, which is drifting ever so slightly too close to the sun on its 6-million mile journey out to the edges of the solar system. It may turn out to be nothing, but it's interesting to think that we could be just a ti...more
(Composite rating)
Thirteen topics, each with a chapter. Chapters 1-4 are fantastic, especially if you are interested in theoretical physics or astronomy. The weight of the universe, spacecraft flouting our current model of gravity, universal constants and the ever-popular matter of cold fusion. Chapter 8, detailing a monster virus, is interesting even to those who may not be into biology. But that is where the greatness ends.
The rest of the topics range from the mildly interesting to the slow a...more
Thirteen topics, each with a chapter. Chapters 1-4 are fantastic, especially if you are interested in theoretical physics or astronomy. The weight of the universe, spacecraft flouting our current model of gravity, universal constants and the ever-popular matter of cold fusion. Chapter 8, detailing a monster virus, is interesting even to those who may not be into biology. But that is where the greatness ends.
The rest of the topics range from the mildly interesting to the slow a...more
Any book that makes you ponder subjects that are seemingly inherently necessary (find a necessity for sexual reproduction or death) in a new light are going to be getting a thumbs up from me. I enjoy that, it is defiantly on my track of thinking. He took on a number of controversial topics and some of them (homeopathy for example) I don't think I will ever agree with given the current state of affairs but the author doesn't really ask you to agree with anything. He just says there are things tha...more
I realized, before starting this book, that some of the topics might be "old hat". I've read about the dark matter/dark energy mystery in a number of books. But I wasn't ready for the other fascinating mysteries, that truly surprised me. For example, I thought that the placebo effect was well understood. But evidently not. For example, the common drug Valium (dizaepam) has a strong effect; but only if the person taking it understands what the effect should be. Tests have shown that the drug is n...more
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …”
– Isaac Asimov
I recently read 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Micheal Brooks. It’s a popular science book that opens with the above quote and discusses thirteen things that are “funny” about modern science. I really enjoyed this book.
Each of the chapters in this book describes something that’s a little (or a lot) off when described by the current best theory. W...more
– Isaac Asimov
I recently read 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Micheal Brooks. It’s a popular science book that opens with the above quote and discusses thirteen things that are “funny” about modern science. I really enjoyed this book.
Each of the chapters in this book describes something that’s a little (or a lot) off when described by the current best theory. W...more
Very interesting book! makes for a good complimentary read to a book such as "The Grand Design". Whereas the grand design starts from a perspective of "this is what we can explain", this book starts from the opposite side of the coin - i.e. "this is what we can't explain". Why i quite liked the book, is that the perception (of a layman such as me certainly) when reading a book such as Grand Design is one of "wow, we've pretty much got it all mostly figured out, now we're just filling in some min...more
What is the moon doing there? Where did it come from? You don’t know, do you? You’ve never even stopped to think about it. I found out when I read this book.
Actually, that’s a bit of red herring because the book is about the things that we can’t currently explain, the evidence that doesn’t fit, rather than the things we can (and we can explain the moon). Spanning physics, cosmology, chemistry, biology and medicine, and with an explicit nod to Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’, the...more
Actually, that’s a bit of red herring because the book is about the things that we can’t currently explain, the evidence that doesn’t fit, rather than the things we can (and we can explain the moon). Spanning physics, cosmology, chemistry, biology and medicine, and with an explicit nod to Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’, the...more
Michael Brooks' survey of anomalies in contemporary science (2009 - UK Edition) might be regarded as a riposte to the 'end of science' thesis promoted by John Horgan in the mid-1990s. He makes a very good case although one has the suspicion that it is not that there is nothing else to know (which this book shows would be an absurd proposition) but perhaps that there are things that, because of the limitations of ourselves as human observers, we may never know.
Brooks adopts a systematic approach,...more
Brooks adopts a systematic approach,...more
A highly-scientific read that will likely leave you asking more questions than it attempts to address. It's incredibly well written, but be forewarned that it is often weighed down by its own jargon and examples. The two sections I found most compelling were the cold fusion study, and the discussion on homeopathy. If you've ever followed the case of cold fusion some years ago, even on the surface, it is quite a story. This section also probably humanizes its participants the most, especially sur...more
This book was pretty interesting. The author presents 13 subjects that society and science have not come to a consensus on and then he presents the history of each issue and the different aspects of the aurguments about the issues. These issues range from the definition of what is alive, "giant" viruses, dark matter/energy, death, immortality, homeopathic medicine, etc. Some of these issues are very thought provoking abd I learned a few things I didn't know before and that's always nice. The aut...more
This was the first book I downloaded and read from Library2Go, a digital lending service provided by many of Oregon's library systems. First I downloaded and installed Adobe's Digital Editions reader. Then I selected "13 Things" from the top of the science list as a trial. I did not expect to actually finish reading the book, but once I got started I found that it was the most interesting book that I had read in quite a while.
It was very interesting and fun to read, spellbinding science, history...more
It was very interesting and fun to read, spellbinding science, history...more
I didn’t expect to like this book. With a title like “13 Things that Don’t Make Sense” I assumed that Brooks was simply going to throw out 13 mysteries that we all wonder about. What I read was a well thought out treatment for every one of the 13 “Things”. That said, there were parts of this book that I liked, and parts that I did not like. There are clearly objective mysteries presented in the area of particle physics where it is clear that nobody currently knows the answers to certain basic qu...more
In 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, Michael Brooks investigates some of the mysteries that are currently baffling scientists. For the most part the discussions are informative and interesting, but Brooks loses his way repeatedly, giving undue weight to fringe positions where none is due.
1 & 2: Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the failure of Newtonian gravitation - Brooks does a good job outlining the subject, but gives far too much weight to the view that the expanding universe may be due to er...more
1 & 2: Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the failure of Newtonian gravitation - Brooks does a good job outlining the subject, but gives far too much weight to the view that the expanding universe may be due to er...more
Apr 02, 2013
Martin Waterhouse
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audio-books,
non-fiction
I think science is generally thought of as a big book of facts filled with equations, graphs and hypotheses that only scientists can understand; and as time goes on this book is getting bigger and, inevitably, more impenetrable to the uninitiated. In 13 Things ..., however, Michael Brooks reminds us that science is actually a big book of questions and - more often than not - arguments. He takes us through the big holes that science has barely begun to look into: from the dark physics of dark mat...more
'13 Things' gives layman descriptions for 13 anomalies in modern science, which I thoroughly enjoy because I happen to be of said layman type.
This book is a good read for those of us who loved science class, but have never had the time to acknowledge (or even care about) today's top questions in science.
This book will NOT allow you succeed in a scientific debate with an actual scientist.
This book will however introduce you to some interesting topics, which then allows you to go back to your lif...more
This book is a good read for those of us who loved science class, but have never had the time to acknowledge (or even care about) today's top questions in science.
This book will NOT allow you succeed in a scientific debate with an actual scientist.
This book will however introduce you to some interesting topics, which then allows you to go back to your lif...more
Great topical look at 13 anomalies we can't explain or reason yet in science. There is an overriding theme--taken from Kuhn about how science deals with anomalies that sometimes lead into giant paradigm shifts. I appreciated how Brook went after each topic both objectively but definitely with narrative--making sure to include the naysayers and bandwagon folks in each topic to give a really thorough outline at what had been tried on that specific anomaly
Brooks starts out in the cosmological, then...more
Brooks starts out in the cosmological, then...more
Clean, engaging prose--no small feat with some of the ideas raised. And I love the conceit: examining a few conundrums which expose the way we're still trying to frame certain problems (in cosmology, biology, etc.). But I'm with Buck in finding the first half more engaging than the second.
I came to this after I was pointed toward a discussion of the Wow! message (received or noted by SETI a couple decades ago). I found myself in that chapter wishing for much more on this particular problem, and...more
I came to this after I was pointed toward a discussion of the Wow! message (received or noted by SETI a couple decades ago). I found myself in that chapter wishing for much more on this particular problem, and...more
I cannot begin to tell you the number of well meaning forwards I've received. I remember reading the article that is the nexus of this fun to read book. The original article from New Scientist was one of the most widely virally distributed document. I could never quite get it but I think deep down it is the very human element that science is done by humans and it delights to be able to the boffins that there's 13 things they haven't quite figured out.
Michael Brooks does a smashing job of glossi...more
Michael Brooks does a smashing job of glossi...more
A discussion of 13 of the major controversies in science today that may need a paradigm shift to solve. Many are physics related and require a re-examination of basic assumptions, e.g Dark matter/energy, the pioneer anomaly, varying constants and cold fusion. Some require a simple rethink of our definitions of concepts, like life and the case of the giant virus; where is the line between the living and non-living and is it just a continuum. Then there is the difficult to verify evidence for the...more
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“The definitive study of the herd instincts of astronomers has yet to be written, Fernie said, but there are times when we resemble nothing so much as a herd of antelope, heads down in tight formation, thundering with firm determination in a particular direction across the plain. At a given signal from the leader we whirl about, and, with equally firm determination, thunder off in quite a different direction, still in tight parallel formation.
(quoting an observation made by astronomer J. Donal Fernie)”
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(quoting an observation made by astronomer J. Donal Fernie)”
“Every advance [in Science] will most likely tell us as much about ourselves as it will about the universe we inhabit. We are all collections of chemicals made in the cataclysmic explosions of stars; we are stardust, or nuclear waste, depending on your perspective.”
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Feb 12, 2013 02:26am
It is over four...more
Feb 12, 2013 02:39am