13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time - Books

Location: Home > Books > Curiosities & Wonders > 13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time

Similar Items:

•	The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
•	Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel
•	The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
•	Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces
•	Outliers: The Story of Success

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Product Description
When we look to the "anomalies" that science cant explain, we often discover where science is about to go. Here are a few of the anomalies that Michael Brooks investigates in 13 Things That Dont Make Sense:

Homeopathic remedies seem to have biological effects that cannot be explained by chemistry

Gases have been detected on Mars that could only have come from carbon-based life forms

Cold fusion, theoretically impossible and discredited in the 1980s, seems to work in some modern laboratory experiments

Its quite likely we have nothing close to free will

Life and non-life may exist along a continuum, which may pave the way for us to create life in the near future

Sexual reproduction doesnt line up with evolutionary theory and, moreover, theres no good scientific explanation for why we must die

Science starts to get interesting when things dont make sense.

Sciences best-kept secret is this: even today, there are experimental results and reliable data that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. In the past, similar "anomalies" have revolutionized our world, like in the sixteenth century, when a set of celestial anomalies led Copernicus to realize that the Earth goes around the sun and not the reverse, and in the 1770s, when two chemists discovered oxygen because of experimental results that defied all the theories of the day. And so, if history is any precedent, we should look to todays inexplicable results to forecast the future of science. In 13 Things That Dont Make Sense, Michael Brooks heads to the scientific frontier to meet thirteen modern-day anomalies and discover tomorrows breakthroughs.

13 Things opens at the twenty-third Solvay physics conference, where the scientists present are ready to throw up their hands over an anomaly: is it possible that the universe, rather than slowly drifting apart as the physics of the big bang had once predicted, is actually expanding at an ever-faster speed? From Solvay and the mysteries of the universe, Brooks travels to a basement in Turin to subject himself to repeated shocks in a test of the placebo response. No study has ever been able to definitively show how the placebo effect works, so why has it become a pillar of medical science? Moreover, is 96 percent of the universe missing? Is a 1977 signal from outer space a transmission from an alien civilization? Might giant viruses explain how life began? Why are some NASA satellites speeding up as they get farther from the sunand what does that mean for the laws of physics?

Spanning disciplines from biology to cosmology, chemistry to psychology to physics, Brooks thrillingly captures the excitement, messiness, and controversy of the battle over where science is headed. "In science," he writes, "being stuck can be a sign that you are about to make a great leap forward. The things that dont make sense are, in some ways, the only things that matter."

Amazon.com Exclusive: Anahad O'Connor Reviews 13 Things That Don't Make Sense
Anahad O'Connor, The New York Times' Science Times "Really?" columnist and author of Never Shower in a Thunderstorm, reviews 13 Things That Don't Make Sense exclusively for Amazon:

Michael Brooks opens 13 Things That Don't Make Sense with an anecdote about watching three Nobel laureates struggle to figure out a hotel elevator. It's an amusing story that illustrates at least two things. One, three heads are not always better than one. And two, as every science and health reporter learns their first day on the job, even the world's greatest minds cannot always sort through the problems we expect them to conquer.

It is this latter theme that is at the core of Mr. Brooks' fascinating new book except in this case, the problems are 13 stubborn mysteries that have stumped top scientists for decades and, in some cases, centuries. Spun out of a popular article that appeared in New Scientist an article that quickly became one of the most forwarded articles in the magazine's online history Mr. Brooks' book takes its readers on a lively journey through the cosmos, physics, biology and human nature. Along the way he explores questions such as why scientists cannot account for 90 percent of the universe (hint: dark matter has something to do with it), whether we have already been contacted by alien life but paid little mind, why humans rely on a form of sexual reproduction that, from an evolutionary perspective, is extremely inefficient, and why we are routinely deceived by the placebo effect.

Mr. Brooks expertly works his way through these and other hotly debated quandaries in a smooth, engaging writing style reminiscent of Carl Sagan or Stephen Jay Gould. At times, as I was deeply engrossed in parts of this book, I found myself as captivated and wide-eyed as I was decades ago when I picked up my first science books and found my calling. Mr. Brooks has the ability to make his readers forget their surroundings in my case a hectic newsroom and train their minds' eyes on images as foreign as a vast Martian landscape or as distant as a roiling, infant universe. Every mystery is brought to life in vivid detail, and wit and humor are sprinkled throughout.

To be sure, some of the chapters are more entertaining than others. A section on cold fusion, for example, while understandably necessary in a book on scientific mysteries, may not turn out to be quite as captivating for some readers as the chapters that precede and follow it. That may have something to do with the notion that cold fusion has been unfairly maligned and ridiculed by scientists despite its continuing promise, an argument Mr. Brooks lays out well. But it is ultimately in his chapters on the Big Bang, dark matter, and other issues that relate to the cosmos where Mr. Brooks, who holds a Ph.D. in quantum physics, really works his magic. No surprise then that Mr. Brooks is also co-writing a TV series for the Discovery Channel that explores the universe through the eyes of none other than Stephen Hawking. If 13 Things That Don't Make Sense is any indication, the series will find an enraptured audience.

(Photo A Lars Klove)

Product Description
Ninety-six per cent of the universe is missing. The effects of homeopathy don’t go away under rigorous scientific conditions. The laws of nature aren’t what they used to be. Thirty years on, no one has an explanation for a seemingly intelligent signal received from outer space. The US Department of Energy is re-examining cold fusion because the experimental evidence seems too solid to ignore. The placebo effect is put to work in medicine while doctors can’t agree whether it even exists.

In an age when science is supposed to be king, scientists are beset by experimental results they simply can’t explain. But, if the past is anything to go by, these anomalies contain the seeds of future revolutions. While taking readers on an entertaining tour d’horizon of the strangest of scientific findings – involving everything from our lack of free will to Martian methane that offers new evidence of life on the planet – Michael Brooks argues that the things we don’t understand are the key to what we are about to discover.

This mind-boggling but entirely accessible survey of the outer limits of human knowledge is based on a short article by Michael Brooks for New Scientist magazine. It became the sixth most circulated story on the internet in 2005, and provoked widespread comment and compliments (Google “13 things that do not make sense” to see).

Michael Brooks has now dug deeply into those mysteries, with extraordinary results.

Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Thought-provoking and very readable November 11, 2008
This is an outstanding book. It's a thought-provoking examination of thirteen problems in science that have puzzled-- and sometimes embarrassed and angered-- scientists for years. Though it is scientifically rigorous, it is at the same time very readable.

The book is a greatly expanded version of an article that the author wrote for New Scientist magazine. Brooks considers a wide range of issues, including what dark matter and dark energy might be, if they are anything at all; why the Pioneer spacecraft is apparently violating the rules of physics as it leaves the solar system; why scientists decided that the Viking landers on Mars didn't detect life, despite consistent evidence that they did; whether an alien civilization has already contacted us but we weren't listening carefully enough to notice; why death and sex exist, despite their nearly complete lack of evolutionary advantage; how experiments continue to show that cold fusion may be a real phenomenon, despite abundant proof that it can't exist; why the placebo effect works, despite evidence that it doesn't actually exist; and more.

All of this is tied together by a theme: The world's best experts can't always figure things, out, even when large numbers of them agree; indeed, sometimes those experts prevent things from being properly examined, let alone figured out.

The general tone and style of the book reminded me of Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, and John McPhee. There is a LOT to chew on here, but the bites are correctly sized and very tender. The author has a PhD in quantum physics, but he's also a good magazine feature writer. The balance of real science and entertainment is perfect.

I enjoyed this book very much, and I think it will easily repay any reader for the time and money invested in it.

5 out of 5 stars

Whether there is a problem there is a scientific opportunity October 22, 2008
Michael Brooks chooses thirteen mysteries or anomalies, cases in which we know or learn or have evidence of something which does not fit in with our generally accepted scientific understanding. He discusses these questions and does not provide definite answers in any case. He simply reveals to us the problems and gives us some of the answers which have been proposed. Among the questions he asks are those which relate to fundamental questions in Science. One chapter is devoted to understanding how Life may have been created. Another is devoted to the missing ninety- six percent of the Matter of the Universe which Scientists suppose to be Dark Energy or Dark Matter. Another concerns the question of whether there is Life on Mars. Still another deals with the 'Wow' signal received which seemed to be a response proving that extraterrestials had broadcast to us. But it was never repeated, and it came from a place in the Universe which it appears it could not possibly come from. Another chapter deals with the question of our Free- Will and the neuroscience showing our brain-activity prompting the physical action before we make the conscious decision. There are also chapters on the placebo effect, and homeopathy , two it seems to me , less significant questions. There is also a chapter considering whether Death is genetically programmed or comes from accumulated reproductive cellular errors which come with Age.
Brooks talks in the book about meeting and speaking with John Horgan who has written about 'the End of Science'. Brooks clearly takes the opposite view and considers Science very much alive, especially in those areas where it , as in the cases he studies, does not have clear understanding.
An excellent work which once again proves the old truth that the more we do know the more we know there is to know that we don't know now.

5 out of 5 stars

No answers, but a deeper understanding of things October 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The book is excellent in showing some major things we kind of take for granted, but really shouldn't, because to come up with dramatic advances in science or in understanding, we have a better chance when pondering these challenges.

There are some things I will never think in quite the same way after reading this book, like:

1. The universe is expanding, but doing so at an ever faster rate. Therefore, we should be ready to alter current science, like our understanding of gravity. The author presents the concepts of dark energy (causing the ever faster expansion) and dark matter (affecting the shape, size and spin of galaxies). Plus, that can lead us to question whether scientific constants, are actually constant or might vary somewhat over millions or billions of years. Then, there is cold fusion and we still can't say it isn't possible.

2. As for 'Life', we still don't know how it began. NASA once claimed they had found life on Mars, through the Viking exploration, but then not sure. In 1977, we received a radio signal from space, and still not sure if it was or wasn't some alien communication. The best hope for some signal would likely be some fundamental mathematical code or a laser beam.
Maybe a virus was the first form of life. There are some indications that this is possible.

3. As for 'Aging' and 'Death', some fish, amphibians and reptiles don't seem to age. Some organisms don't appear to die. There is some thought that death was only introduced to protect against damaged DNA being passed on, so maybe by tinkering with our DNA we can extend life and the vibrancy of life.

4. Why 'Sex', since many living things reproduce assexually? Maybe to purge deleterious mutations or evolve to get rid of parasites and parasites evolve to always be able to find a home. Plus, since female animals don't always select the strongest or most dominant male, maybe something else at work, like what is in the best interest of the whole group. Mathematical Game Theory does seem to indicate that the best solution is when most, in a group, are optimally happy. So, is the reason for sex mathematically based? Interesting.

5. As for 'Free Will', do we really have it? There are some scientific studies which show our actual actions can precede the mind's actual awareness of wanting to start the action. It is noted that most psychological disorders involve people who try to exert maybe too much control over their life. Maybe a better road to sanity is acknowledging we aren't in control. Anyway, it does seem likely we have a lot less free will than we think we have.

6. The 'Placebo Effect' does seem to work, like the drug, Valium, doesn't seem to work unless the patient knows he/she is taking it. But, why the placebo affect works, we still don't know.

7. Homeopathy does seem to work beyond what might be attributed to the placebo effect. But, why? We don't know.

Anyway, this book is really great at making a reader just think a little deeper about some pretty important things.

5 out of 5 stars

Quantifying Ignorance...the fractal nature of knowledge September 21, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

"I believe that knowledge is fractal in nature. No matter how much we learn, what remains how seemingly small is infinitely complex."
Isaac Asimov

In detailing 13 mysteries at the edge of modern science Michael Brooks expertly lays bare fertile domains for scientific progress. But much more than that, referencing history and historical shifts in perspective that accompanied scientific advance (as for example, when the church attempted to suppress the writings of Galileo and was ultimately unsuccessful in doing so) Brooks also suggests that shifts in perspective may be necessary for us to gain the advance we seek.

But enough about generalities...let's take glimpse at the mysteries surveyed by Brooks:

1) The search for the missing mass in the universe: Today's physicists believe they can only fully explain four percent of what constitutes the universe. The remaining 96 percent has been supposedly divided into dark matter and dark energy owing to qualities about some of it that seem to behave more like matter and others that seem to behave more like energy. However, another proposal is that our understanding of gravity itself is at fault and just as Einstein had to tweek Isaac Newton's concepts of gravity in relation to light we may also have to tweek them in relation to supposedly empty space...which relates to the next mystery:

2) The Pioneer anomaly: In the early 1970s the US sent out two Pioneer probes that are now both past Pluto. Yet amazingly both of them are off course and by the same degree than would be predicted under traditional notions of gravitational pull. Have our probes journeyed far enough to make contact with that missing universe aluded to in the first mystery? The answer to that question is related to our next mystery:

3) Varying Constants: The set strength of the various fundamental forces of nature may not be constant. For those whose appetite is whetted by this chapter, please read Oxford University Prof. John Barrow's book entitled simply "Constants of the Universe." In a rough way, this mystery relates to the next one:

4) Whether cold fusion is possible: Thanks to Einstein's famous E = MC2 huge amounts of energy can be produced by either nuclear fission (the division of nuclear particles) or alternatively fusion (the unification of certain nuclear particles). For those familiar with US A bomb and H bomb testing videos and Godzilla movies, this process is usually a very dramatic one. If cold fusion were possible it would bode significantly against global energy concerns. And while we still don't know for sure if it can be done, we do know that the US Navy is convinced enough to massively fund research in this area. From this mystery, we leap to our next one:

5) How did life originate: Wisely Brooks peppers this part of his book heavily with quotations from both Erwin Schroedinger whose 1944 essay of the same name is still in print and also Adelaide U prof Paul Davies fantastic book The Fifth Miracle. While personally, I believe life will ultimately be found to a fairly common emergent property on certain types of planets and moons, it's still interesting reading to see just how far current research has NOT come. This brings us to our next mystery:

6) Did Viking find evidence of life on Mars: On July 20 1976 the Viking lander did just that on Mars. In four then cutting edge tests (the fifth one failed to work properly) Viking's magic eight ball said: Probably not. But was that the final word? Itself probably not. Which brings us to the next mystery: did we alredy recieve an extra terrestrial signal?

As can be seen, the issues (and the ones listed were just a sampling are fascinating reading for both the questions they answer and the others they beckon us...their inheritors...to answer.

5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating Mysteries in Modern Science September 17, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book bursts with enthusiasm - that with which the author wrote it. And that enthusiasm can be very contagious for any of its readers. In 13 spellbinding chapters the author presents concise overviews of 13 topics in modern-day science that seem to defy scientific explanation. These topics include dark matter/energy in the universe, varying constants, cold fusion (still alive in some laboratories), the placebo effect and homeopathy to name just a few. In each case, scientists specializing in the field in question have been interviewed and their work discussed in sufficient detail for the reader to get a good grasp of what is involved. This book contains very good examples of the scientific method at work. The writing style is animated, clear, friendly and quite engaging. Although the book is also quite accessible to anyone, it will likely appeal the most to science buffs.

Good Grape Wine Company