The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense by Michael ShermerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I initially found this a bit off-putting. The first section with an overview of the sadly deluded made me feel like a chuckling gawker, as I felt in reading No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mt. Wilson Observatory, 1915 which is quoted here. However, the last half more than made up for it. There were covered three topics really work remembering and considering:
1: Thomas S. Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions gave us the valuable concept of the paradigm shift. However, the shifting is often more complicated than that implies. There are often multiple paradigms held, emerging, and submerging.
2: Being open and receptive to new ideas -- more difficult with advancing age -- is critical to maintaining intellectual growth
3: The Piltdown Man paleo-anthropological hoax is a fascinating example of the failure and success of the institutionalized scientific method.
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