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Falling For Science: Asking the Big Questions Click to enlarge
Falling For Science: Asking the Big Questions
By Bernard Beckett
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Falling For Science: Asking the Big Questions

By (author) Bernard BeckettSee other recent books by Bernard Beckett

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'What is consciousness? Is evolution compatible with traditional religion? Does time exist or is it just our way of ordering experiences? Could a machine ever think? What do scientists really mean when they call something a fact?' Modern science has unravelled the mystery of life, seen back to the dawn of time and peered down into the weird world of quantum mechanics. Small wonder then that people now look to science to answer the big metaphysical questions. In Falling for Science Bernard Beckett shows this instinct to be misguided. According to Beckett, the modern fashion for making scientists 'the High Priests of Everything' is mysticism in a lab coat. Here the author argues for a new model of scepticism, one which leaves scientists and story tellers to each get on with what they're best at. Beckett is a powerful, persuasive communicator who writes in the contemporary vein of popular science writers like Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker and Jared Diamond. With wit and not a little irreverence, Beckett offers a history of the ideas behind recent scientific development, and introduces the reader to arguments about the nature of consciousness, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence - and more. Brilliantly unsettling, Falling for Science is compulsively readable.

ISBN: 9781877361722
Classification: Popular science , Philosophy of science
Format: Paperback (234mm x 158mm x 22mm)
Pages: 254
Publish Date: 31-Aug-2007
Country of Publication: New Zealand

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Author Biography: Bernard Beckett
Bernard Beckett has a degree in Economics, and has taught in the Wellington region for several years. He has published a book of non-fiction (Falling for Science: Asking the Big Questions (2007)), and eight novels, for which he and has won many awards. His novel Genesis (2006), which won the Young Adult Category in the 2007 NZ Post Book Awards, made publishing history in 2008 when UK publisher Quercus Books offered the largest advance ever put forward for a young adult novel in New Zealand. The novel is to be released in the UK as two separate editions: adult and young adult, and is to be published - at this date - in over 20 countries. Bernard currently lives in Wellington with his wife, Clare Knighton (his co-author on Deep Fried).

Recent books by Bernard Beckett » View all books by Bernard Beckett

Genesis
Genesis, Paperback (May 2010)
Genesis
Genesis, Paperback / softback (May 2010)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (May 2009)
Malcolm and Juliet
Malcolm and Juliet, Paperback (May 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, Hardback (April 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, Hardback (April 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (April 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (April 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (April 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (April 2009)
Jolt
Jolt, Paperback (March 2009)
Jolt
Jolt, Paperback (March 2009)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (November 2008)
Genesis
Genesis, CD-Audio (November 2008)
Acid Song
Acid Song, Paperback (August 2008)
Genesis
Genesis, Paperback (May 2008)
Genesis
Genesis, Paperback (April 2008)
Falling For Science: Asking the Big Questions
Falling For Science: Asking the Big Questions, Paperback (August 2007)
Genesis
Genesis, Paperback (August 2006)
Deep Fried
Deep Fried, Paperback (July 2005)
» View all books by Bernard Beckett
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