Lies, Damned Lies, and Science: How to Sort through the Noise around Global Warming, the Latest Health Claims, and Other Scientific Controversies

Introduction

	Knowledge is power.
	—Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

If the words “xylem” and “phloem” bring to mind musical instruments rather than plants, and you could not tell a gastropod from an annelid if one turned up in your breakfast cereal, you are still perfectly capable of learning to see through the hype and hogwash that come your way. This book will give you something more powerful than facts. It will give you tools—the kind of tools that no one (not even the self-proclaimed science nerd) learned in school. The power of these tools is that they can be applied to any issue that arises. New facts will come to light over time, and old ones will be overturned, but these tools will last you a lifetime. They will help you ...