Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science

John Macdonald is a Toronto-based senior systems engineer specializing
in Unix.

In this book, A.K. Dewdney, a mathematics professor and former columnist
for Scientific American, takes us on a fascinating and often humorous
trip into the world of science gone wrong. We encounter those
“apprentices” (Dewdney’s word for scientists, or “sorcerors,”
who slip up) who wilfully ignore scientific method in the pursuit of
glory or gain, such as Frank Drake (SETI project) and John Allen
(Biosphere experiment); and sorcerors-turned-apprentices who unwittingly
lose their scientific bearings, such as Blondlot with his mysterious
N-rays, or Fleishmann and Pons, who were responsible for the cold-fusion
fiasco.

Dewdney also discusses the destructive effects that certain theories
have had on human lives. Into this category fall Binet’s IQ theory,
which has been distorted by others, and Freudian psychology, a
“science” that in its infancy operated without an “experimental
check on Freud’s rich imagination.” The author makes such thorny
subjects as subatomic physics accessible to anyone with a strong
scientific curiosity. In his introduction, he discusses the differences
between science and technology, and between deductive and inductive
science, and identifies the various types of bad science. (This book, he
is careful to point out, does not deal with purposely fraudulent
science.)

The media, hungry for good copy, are constantly manipulating our
perceptions of bad science, thereby draining money and attention away
from worthwhile research. Yes, We Have No Neutrons is an excellent
antidote to such manipulation.