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On Fact and Fraud: Cautionary Tales from the Front Lines of Science

On Fact and Fraud: Cautionary Tales from the Front Lines of Science Hardcover - 2010

by David Goodstein

  • Used
  • Hardcover

Description

Princeton University Press, February 2010. Hardcover. Used - Very Good/Very Good. Princeton University, 2010. Very Good/Very Good. Yellow cloth board covers with Gold gilt lettering on spine. Yellow decorated DJ with yellow spine. Light edge wear. Publishing flaw on inside front cover near spine. Black marker stain on bottom page edges near spine. 8.5x5.5 with 168 pages
Used - Very Good
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Details

  • Title On Fact and Fraud: Cautionary Tales from the Front Lines of Science
  • Author David Goodstein
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition GMC CRDS
  • Condition Used - Very Good
  • Pages 184
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Princeton University Press
  • Date February 2010
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 131451
  • ISBN 9780691139661 / 0691139660
  • Weight 0.91 lbs (0.41 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.74 x 5.74 x 0.77 in (22.20 x 14.58 x 1.96 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Research - Moral and ethical aspects, Fraud in science
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009039252
  • Dewey Decimal Code 500

From the publisher

An in-depth look at scientific fraud

Fraud in science is not as easy to identify as one might think. When accusations of scientific misconduct occur, truth can often be elusive, and the cause of a scientist's ethical misstep isn't always clear. On Fact and Fraud looks at actual cases in which fraud was committed or alleged, explaining what constitutes scientific misconduct and what doesn't, and providing readers with the ethical foundations needed to discern and avoid fraud wherever it may arise.

In David Goodstein's varied experience--as a physicist and educator, and as vice provost at Caltech, a job in which he was responsible for investigating all allegations of scientific misconduct--a deceptively simple question has come up time and again: what constitutes fraud in science? Here, Goodstein takes us on a tour of real controversies from the front lines of science and helps readers determine for themselves whether or not fraud occurred. Cases include, among others, those of Robert A. Millikan, whose historic measurement of the electron's charge has been maligned by accusations of fraud; Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons and their "discovery" of cold fusion; Victor Ninov and the supposed discovery of element 118; Jan Hendrik Schn from Bell Labs and his work in semiconductors; and J. Georg Bednorz and Karl Mller's discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, a seemingly impossible accomplishment that turned out to be real.

On Fact and Fraud provides a user's guide to identifying, avoiding, and preventing fraud in science, along the way offering valuable insights into how modern science is practiced.

From the rear cover

"Bracing reading. On Fact and Fraud is important because it combines a considered ethical stance and an analysis of the conditions under which fraud takes place with recognition of the all-too-real difficulties of handling, under pressure, hard-to-reproduce effects. This is a smart, deft book by someone deeply familiar with the moral and ethical complexities in contemporary science."--Peter Galison, Harvard University

"The success and credibility of science is anchored in a culture of complete openness. For more than twenty years, Caltech physicist David Goodstein has been on the front lines defending that culture against attacks of fraud and self-delusion. In this tightly written book, he shares insights drawn from cases that have shaken the physical sciences."--Robert L. Park, author of Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science

"This is a superb book. Goodstein not only discusses the subject in an accessible way, but his thoughts are refreshing to a working physicist such as me, one who has wrestled with many of these issues. It will be the definitive book on the subject. I know of nothing that competes. Goodstein is clearly an expert."--Richard A. Muller, University of California, Berkeley

"This book includes considerable material of interest. On Fact and Fraud offers an interesting read for anyone who has a career focus on these topics."--Michael W. Kalichman, director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego

"Goodstein's important book explores how science is really done, and distinguishes itself from other books on the topic in that it is a story told from the inside, by a physicist. Goodstein examines the structure of the entire enterprise, from the motivations of individual scientists, to the reward system, to the corridors of power. Along the way, he destroys a number of popular and enduring myths."--Anthony Tyson, University of California, Davis

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Citations

  • Choice, 09/01/2010, Page 0

About the author

David Goodstein is the Frank J. Gilloon Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. His books include Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil and Feynman's Lost Lecture.

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