Dintotdeauna, oamenii au folosit folclorul și înțelepciunea populară pentru a încerca să explice lumea care ne înconjoară. Unele dintre convingerile ce-și au originea în experiența de viață a oamenilor au dovedit ulterior că au o bază științifică – de exemplu, când la apus cerul are o tentă roșiatică înseamnă că ziua următoare vom avea parte de o vreme frumoasă. Alte explicații și convingeri sunt simple povești ce au reușit să zăbovească în mentalul colectiv până în prezent, în ciuda numeroaselor dovezi științifice care demonstrează contrariul. Și, uneori, această înțelepciune populară are versiuni care sunt într-o directă contradicție.
TRĂSNETUL LOVEȘTE ADESEA DE DOUĂ ORI prezintă cincizeci de concepții bine împământenite despre lumea noastră, care sunt fie înșelătoare, fie complet greșite. Unele au rădăcini adânci în folclor – de exemplu, sugestia la care se face aluzie în titlul cărții, că trăsnetul nu lovește niciodată de două ori în același loc, este o concepție atât de răspândită, încât oamenii au început să o asocieze cu o modalitate de a se referi la un eveniment despre care este greu de crezut că va avea loc. Altele, prezente adesea în folclorul modern, par că au o oarecare bază științifică.
Fiecare subiect îți oferă șansa fascinantă de a afla mai multe despre știință și de a pune la îndoială ceea ce credeai că este adevărat.
Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.
Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.
Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.
Interesantă, dar se bazează prea mult pe teorii nefinalizate sau care nu au fost studiate suficient pentru a ajunge la o concluzie, iar asta m-a făcut să pun la îndoială unele din cele 50 de concepții.
Though I appreciate the purpose of the content- that is, pointing out misconceptions, describing their origins, and correcting them - the delivery of the content was nothing short of a buzzfeed article (e.g. "50 Things You Were Taught Wrong"). I could hardly make sense of what was being said through all the tangents, vague analogies, and awkward sequence of information. Simplicity has taken its toll, and the information was not conveyed in impactful manner. The only information from this book that may stick with me are the fact that the lightning strikes wherever and how many times it wants, and the fact that the phases of the moon is NOT caused by the Earth's shadow.
Considering that this is a four hour audiobook, each fact takes just under five minutes.
I do enjoy the these quick clearing up of common misconceptions - it’s not too heavy, making it easy to put down and pick up again.
Interesting fact: Your fingertips and toetips wrinkle after a long shower not because water went under your skin - it’s pretty much waterproof. It’s a response to increase fiction - If there’s nerve damage, the wrinkling doesn’t happen.
This book was published in July earlier this year.
This is way more of a 'technically...' approach rather than things people actually believe that are wrong. Some were actual misconceptions but most felt like filler and would have been better served having maybe 10-20 instead of 50. Some areas of quantum mechanics piqued my interest, however, for a notoriously difficult area, the author spoke about it in a way which made it more complicated. Didn't appreciate that approach.
Thoroughly enjoyable read and topics right up my alley and hence the 5 stars rating. Things are explained fairly easily and enough hints to do your own research in case you want more details. Also clear call outs on where we still don't have answers. Specifically I want to know why the moon appears so close.
I already knew all this... it uses very simple language and doesn't explain anything in detail just briefly covers the basics I picked it up because the cover and concept seemed interesting my rating comes from me already knowing the information in this book and the author going on tangents a lot. it's just not for me
A pleasant book which had me raising my eyebrows often. Some of these misconceptions seem too good to be true. I'd really like to see the the literature for myself.
If these misconceptions are indeed proved true, we really must share the info and set the record straight!
3⭐️/5⭐️ ♡ O carte scurtă, fiecare capitol descrie o situație "predată greșit" sau rămasă greșit în amintirea colectivă. Unele sunt simple, altele puțin surprinzătoare. Toate sunt explicate în câteva pagini, plus scheme, unde e cazul. (O recomand celor de gimnaziu, interesați de fizică.) ♡ Number of pages: 207 pages, Kindle edition ♡ Read: 13th August 2025