Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait, John Wiley, 拢11.95, ISBN 0471409766
PSEUDOSCIENCE bombards us from every angle, mourns Philip Plait, an astronomer at Sonoma State University in California. He blames everyone from school boards that promote antiscience to ignorant sciencejournalists, as well as the Web that unwittingly globalises conspiracy theories in a flash. It鈥檚 little wonder, he says, that we struggle to distinguish fact from fantasy.
In Bad Astronomy, then, Plait sets out to 鈥渦proot those brain weeds and plant healthy greenery鈥�. He sets lots of common misconceptions straight鈥攖hat the Moon looks bigger when it鈥檚 close to the horizon, for instance, and that water swirls clockwise down a plughole in the northern hemisphere. And if like 12 million Americans you think NASA faked pictures of men on the Moon, Plait鈥檚 here to put you right.
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His style is light and chatty, although it鈥檚 strangely irritating that every page is riddled with italics for emphasis. And Plait does let pedantry creep in at times.
But everything鈥檚 beautifully explained. He gives the neatest explanation of tides I鈥檝e ever seen, along with a timely and thorough trashing of creationists鈥� arguments. For that alone, this book should be in every school library on the planet.