Product Description

This book presents a trawl through the history of those scientific ideas which seemed plausible, at least to some, but turned out to be wrong. It includes flat earth, hollow earth, lost worlds and bizarre ideas about evolution; Piltdown man and other scams; alchemy, aliens, humours and homunculi...It offers a feast of curiosities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125722 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

DISCARDED SCIENCE is a keeper
John Grant's DISCARDED SCIENCE is a wonderful little book. Not only is it an affordable, illustrated hardcover priced very reasonably, it's a marvelous read. Structured in a convenient, reader-friendly, topic-by-topic format, DISCARDED SCIENCE travels down both forgotten and familiar byways, not just of discredited scientific theory, but of often amusing (and sometimes tragic) pseudoscience as well. It's entertainly written, and Mr. Grant's tongue is often in his cheek as he dryly describes unsupportable scientific notions from Plato to the present day---from "phlogiston," once believed to be the subtance that creates fire, to the Realians, A European creation-science-by-aliens cult. He logically dissects outmoded and often outlandish claims, revealing in the process why these are not now (and sometims never have been) considered legitimate science.

DISCARDED SCIENCE is great fun, very educational, and the best deal for thirteen bucks I've seen in quite some time.