Debunked! by Georges Charpak and Henri Broch Johns Hopkins University Press, $25/拢17, ISBN 0801878675 Reviewed by John Bonner
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鈥檚 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.
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Debunked! was written by two leading French scientists with a shared interest in human gullibility. Georges Charpak won the 1992 Nobel physics prize, while Henri Broch teaches physics and zetetics (the scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena) at the University of Nice. That the authors are so eminent is the book鈥檚 main weakness as well as its strength: the text seems to have been translated with a little too much respect and retains rather too much of the language patterns of its original French, which often make it hard going for an English-speaking audience.