false 38540 1 If it can go wrong, it will--thus Murphy's Law. Science journalist Edward Tenner looks more closely at this eternal verity, named after a U.S. Air Force captain who, during a test of rocket-sled deceleration, noticed that critical gauges had been improperly set and concluded, "If there's more than one way to do a job and one of those ways will end in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." Tenner concurs, and he gives us myriad case studies of how technological fixes often create bigger problems than the ones they were meant to solve in the first place. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics, by way of example, has yielded hardier strains of bacteria and viruses that do not respond to pharmaceutical treatment; the wide-scale use of air conditioning in cities has raised the outdoor temperature in some places by as much as 10 degrees, adding stress to already-taxed cooling systems; the modern reliance on medical intervention to deal with simple illnesses, to say nothing of the rapidly growing number of elective surgeries, means that even a low percentage of error (one patient in twenty-five, by a recent estimate) can affect increasingly large numbers of people. Tenner examines what he deems the "unintended consequences" of technological innovation, drawing examples from everyday objects and situations. Although he recounts disaster after painful disaster, his book makes for curiously entertaining, if sometimes scary, reading. <I>--Gregory McNamee</I> 38302 2 9 1997 Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Vintage) total:54|5:9|4:19|3:17|2:8|1:1| 54 189 116 12 2 0 false false Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 12:34:27 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 06:53:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 06 08:15:59 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 08 08:59:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Dec 11 19:46:04 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 20:49:42 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Apr 23 08:02:11 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 08:14:31 -0700 2008
i'm enjoying this book a great deal. the 'history of science-and-technology'-thing is sooo my schtick. i've owned this book for a number of years; high time i got around to reading it.

the book itself is a bit other-than-expected, in that it does read like a bit...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Dec 21 09:50:50 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 09:51:27 -0800 2007
Tenner discusses the "revenge effect" - where improvements in technology cause related problems - such as building seawalls to protect beachfront property causing the property on t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Sep 16 23:00:21 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 20:38:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Aug 24 00:08:12 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 00:08:12 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Oct 21 21:38:53 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 28 18:42:55 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Jan 04 08:55:48 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 12:16:13 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Jan 24 04:18:36 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 04:19:14 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue Jul 03 17:09:51 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 17:10:37 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 06 17:13:46 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 06 17:13:46 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Wed Nov 11 19:38:58 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 19:38:58 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 06 14:38:40 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 14:38:40 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Sep 24 06:08:01 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 06:08:01 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Sep 12 16:23:04 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 16:23:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 09 14:45:18 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 14:45:18 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 04 09:22:07 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 09:22:07 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Mon Aug 24 20:50:37 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 20:50:43 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Aug 22 18:58:06 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 18:58:06 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=38540