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Ignorance: How It Drives Science

Stuart Firestein

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Description for Ignorance: How It Drives Science Hardback. Contrary to the popular view of science as a mountainous accumulation of facts and data, Stuart Firestein takes the novel perspective that ignorance is the main product and driving force of science, and that this is the best way to understand the process of scientific discovery. Num Pages: 208 pages. BIC Classification: HPK; PDA; PDZ. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 183 x 132 x 20. Weight in Grams: 296.
Knowledge is a big subject, says Stuart Firestein, but ignorance is a bigger one. And it is ignorance--not knowledge--that is the true engine of science. Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and getting things done. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and there may not be a cat in the room. The process is more hit-or-miss than you might imagine, with much stumbling and groping after phantoms. But it ... Read more

Product Details

Publisher

Oxford University Press Inc United States

Number of pages

256

Format

Hardback

Publication date

2012

Condition

New

Number of Pages

208

Place of Publication

New York, United States

ISBN

9780199828074

SKU

V9780199828074

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days

Ref

99-2

About Stuart Firestein

Stuart Firestein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where his highly popular course on ignorance invites working scientists to come talk to students each week about what they don't know. Dedicated to promoting science to a public audience, he serves as an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program for the Public ... Read more

Reviews for Ignorance: How It Drives Science

This is a lovely little book, which is truly about what drives science; and its not about physics, or chemistry, or engineering, but real biology.
Jack Cohen, The Biologist
This is a lovely little book ... Give it to your friends or relatives to explain why you do science.
Professor Jack Cohen FSB, The Biologist
[B]oth ... Read moreconcise and splendidly aphoristic.
Robin Ince, New Statesman
A valuable acquisition for academic libraries, given the current emphasis on STEM education and undergraduate research.
R. E. Buntrock, CHOICE
It is important to emphasize the creative process in the sciences. This is not just another methodological book on the empirical cycle, but an unpretentious and smooth-reading plea for attention on an uncultivated but mineable area.
Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie, Dec 2012
An excellent read, [it is] a fine companion text for potential scientists a the beginning of their studies ... You may gradually become more and more ignorant as you read, and you will enjoy the journey. Ignorance in this telling is truly bliss.
Moran Cerf, Science Magazine
a quietly mind-blowing new book.
Readers Digest
Stuart Firestein, a teacher and neuroscientist, has written a splendid and admirably short book about the pleasure of finding things out using the scientific method. He smartly outlines how science works in reality rather than in stereotype. Ignorance is a thoughtful introduction to the nature of knowing, and the joy of curiosity.
Adam Rutherford, The Observer
A splendid book ... Packed with real examples and deep practical knowledge, Ignorance is a thoughtful introduction to the nature of knowing, and the joy of curiosity.
Adam Rutherford, The Observer
The fundamental attribute of successful scientists, Firestein argues in this pithy book, is a form of ignorance characterised by knowing what you don't know, and being able to ask the right questions.
Culture Lab
The book is effectively conversational and can be read quickly, as intended.
The American Journal of Epidemiology
In Ignorance: How It Drives Science Stuart Firestein goes so far as to claim that ignorance is the main force driving scientific pursuit. Firestein, a popular professor of neurobiology at Columbia, admits at the outset that he uses "the word ignorance at least in part to be intentionally provocative" and clarifies that for him it denotes a "communal gap in knowledge." He describes clearly how scientists continually uncover new facts that confront them with the extent of their ignorance, and how they successfully grapple with uncertainty in their daily research work... Especially valuable is Firestein's ability to capture how science gets done in fits and starts... He demystifies the day-to-day activities of research scientists across a variety of disciplines with case studies illustrating how breakthroughs in understanding, however humble or grand, are essentially unforeseeable even to a seasoned mind.
New York Review of Books
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Ignorance: How It Drives Science

Stuart Firestein

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