Bogus Science: Or, Some People Really Believe These Things

John Grant's Science

by John Grant

Some say it’s science; John Grant says it’s bogus. Fans of the hard facts will welcome this engaging follow-up to Discarded Science and Corrupted Science. Grant takes a hard and lively look at pseudoscience, speculating on whether it’s just entertaining folly or (as many scientists believe), a threat to civilization. He touches on New Age twaddle, from Deepak Chopra to The Secret; the so-called power of crystals; crypto-creatures; the “UFO phenomenon” in all its glory; and those who interpret the Bible as accurate science, history, and prophecy. This will generate enough controversy to guarantee plenty of debate…and reviews!

 

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, Amazon

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2009

About the author

John Grant is author of over eighty books, of which about twenty-five are fiction, including novels like The World, The Hundredfold Problem, The Far-Enough Window and most recently The Dragons of Manhattan and Leaving Fortusa. His “book-length fiction” Dragonhenge, illustrated by Bob Eggleton, was shortlisted for a Hugo Award in 2003; its successor was The Stardragons. His first story collection, Take No Prisoners, appeared in 2004. He is editor of the anthology New Writings in the Fantastic, which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award. His novellas The City in These Pages and The Lonely Hunter have appeared from PS Publishing.

His latest fiction book is Tell No Lies , his second story collection; it's published by Alchemy Press. His most recent nonfiction is A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir . Earlier, he coedited with John Clute The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and wrote in their entirety all three editions of The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters; both encyclopedias are standard reference works in their field. Among other recent nonfictions have been Discarded Science, Corrupted Science (a USA Today Book of the Year), Bogus Science and Denying Science.

As John Grant he has to date received two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a number of other international literary awards. He has written books under other names, even including his real one: as Paul Barnett, he has written a few books (like the space operas Strider’s Galaxy and Strider’s Universe) and for a number of years ran the world-famous fantasy-artbook imprint Paper Tiger, for this work earning a Chesley Award and a nomination for the World Fantasy Award.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was deeply disappointed because the targets the author chooses are so predictable, but also so irrelevant - Atlantis, Big Foot, Yeti, Pyramidology, the Bermuda Triangle - all bogus topics but barely science and not even topics that many people would have believed in, let alone considered science. They are easy targets but irrelevant - most were always fringe topics, certainly none has ever challenged 'real' science or archaeology - nor have they ever been mainstream or challenged the mainstream - but Creationist science has and is an assault on real knowledge and the intelligence of our students who are having it foisted on them as a proper theory. The author could have spent his time more usefully analysing the way the idea of what a theory is has been debased. Or he could take a subject like the 'Rapture' which many people seem to think is a belief based on scripture and with a respectable pedigree of belief amongst Christians. How surprised they might be to learn that 'Rapture' is not found in the teachings of any of the mainstream Catholic or Protestant theologians but is the creation of a fundamentalist Christian church in the USA and was barely 100 years old and it is via Hollywood, not then evangelism, that has spread the story of the 'Rapture'. Giving us the antecedents of tosh like theories of Atlantis are interesting but honestly a bit silly and irrelevant. If you are going to talk about trivial things at lengths why not concentrate on things like Crystal Skulls which Hollywood made a whole film around but which are nothing more then 19th century German tourist artefacts that a whole bogus history was created around by the impoverished daughter of an American explorer to keep her in the luxury she was no longer able to afford when her family money ran low.

I found the book very disappointing and it has not tempted me to waste time, let alone money on any of the authors other offerings.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is interesting but somehow falls short of a truly compelling read. In some instances the book focuses on early examples of psuedoscience where modern examples would feel more relevant. Appropriate qualifications indicate when a very unlikely hypothesis just might _possibly_ true, and I found this very generous of the author. ( Although Bernoulli may have, for a time before thermodynamics, been espousing a valid argument for perpetual motion, given the seeming 'perpetuity' of the universe. )

When I found this book at borders it was shelved alongside two others by the same author: "Discarded Science" and "Corrupted Science." They all looked interesting and I couldn't buy them all just then, so I picked up this one, and Corrupted Science. Of the two, Corrupted Science is by far the superior. Both are worth the read, but if like me you are forced to make the choice, go for corruption.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really interesting stories here, but others felt dry or repetitive. The book was at its best for me when it was geared towards a general audience, such as the sections about Atlantis, European history, and cryptozoology. My physics background is weak enough that a couple of the other subjects were a struggle for me.

I think I'd have enjoyed it a little more if it had lighter coverage of a wider range of topics rather than going so deeply into things like the history of perpetual motion devices.

[Peter Maurer · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a scientist myself, I have an interest in scientific integrity and scientific delusions or outright fraud. I'd hoped that this book would be an account of such things, but it isn't. It's just a bunch of worthless crud. It's a lengthy and wordy list of commonly known screwball ideas, many of which don't even pretend to be science. What about n-rays? What about ceramic semiconductors? Ah, but that would require some actual research, wouldn't it? One might call the content of this book bogus bogus science. Very disappointing.

[Uriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but Grant has yet to match the excitement of the first book, Discarded Science. Bogus Science, by comparison, felt run-on and badly organized. But it has more than a few interesting stories to be worth a quick look.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not as good as his other books.

There is too much listing of odd beliefs and too little exploration of how they come about.

Carl Sagan's Demon 'Hauted World' and Francis Wheen's 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World' treat the subject much better.

[Erik Rühling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suffers from a lack of organization, some of the tiniest type this side of disclaimer text, and content that differs from the description (I don't remember reading anything about crystals, Deepak Chopra or The Secret in these pages; perhaps the book description should be updated).
There's nothing new here and honestly it reads as if the author gathered notecards, arranged them in a random order and fleshed out the text.
A fair amount of the bogus science topics are historical and there isn't as much discussion of the people who currently 'believe these things.' Plenty of snark directed towards the American public and blanket statements about those knuckle-dragging 'conservatives' who just won't get on board with politicized science that is prevalent these days.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I read this book only for the confirmation bias! So many people believe such ridiculous "scientific facts", and I enjoy reading confirmation about the ridiculousness of them! A friend of mine introduced me to this author back in last October, and it's taken me a long time to get around to reading it, but I appreciate the realistic views of science that he presents. It's too bad that he avoids the nonsense "medical" scams and beliefs out there, but he still has no shortage of material!

[Max Astle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what it is, it does it very well. A very concise and accurate representation of pseudoscience in a very to the point manner. A fantastic start to any research endeavor on the silly ideas science gave up on. For one from his point of view, John Grant is extremely forgiving and presents the views as fairly as is reasonable (and beyond this) for a book named "Bogus Science."

[Richard Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting selection of topics from Atlantis to Flat Earth. One weakness: the author tends to be a bit puerile in his " commentaries"

[Janinne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting treatment of the history of various kinds of silly beliefs and the extreme efforts of adherents to justify them "scientifically". Clearly an atheistic viewpoint, however.