The Trouble with Physics

We accept that science (unlike religion, say) is a rational, objective search for verifiable truth. It is not subject to orthodoxy

In this 2006 book, physicist/cosmologist Lee Smolin argues that this is no longer so.  It has become virtually impossible for researchers to get funding for novel research.  A small number of approaches (e.g. string theory) are the established  orthodoxy of modern physics and to stray outside these is to invite ridicule and exclusion.  This, despite the fact that these approaches are still at the speculative stage and not yet verified (indeed some are unlikely to be verifiable). Smolin makes the point that physics has not had a significant breakthrough in 30 years (and that was 12 years ago).  The true scientific approach has been subverted by a new brand of dominant and dogmatic high priests.

The book created something of a storm across the wider scientific community in many other branches of science where the same limitations have come to apply.

Smolin writes well and accessibly,  an interesting and thought-provoking read which cautions against assumptions that science is objective and free from orthodoxy

 

La Peste

Review: Rats, Lice and History by Hans Zinsser

Rating: 9/10

This book went into my list because I remember it so fondly.  Sadly, I can say little about its contents as it is quite some time since I read it.

Published in 1934, it can hardly be claimed that it is a thorough history of plague and pestilence. What can be said of it is that it has been continuously in print since 1934 and that must be a tribute to its quality.  If revisionism is another form of plague, then clearly this book has survived it.