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A book that all scientists should read, and a book that all who are interested in the unexplainable will want to read, Bauer explores how examining anomalies have profited humankind and restores the respectability - and necessity - of such pursuits in a fascinating overview of science and the pursuit of the unknown. Although science attempts to draw a clear line separating its endeavours from those of 'pseudoscience', Henry Bauer reveals that the distinction is both equivocal and misleading. Setting aside science's snowy mantle of truth, Bauer presents pseudoscience - or anomalistics - not as the opposite of science but as something that develops parallel to it. Science assumes anomalies - that is, phenomena that contradict the existing store of knowledge - result from error, contamination, or even deception: in short, from bad research technique, at best, and deliberate hoax, at worst. Anomalists, by contrast, accept such occurrences, often on the basis of eyewitness claims, as important in themselves and worthy of further study, even if they contradict prevailing theories and offer a minimal degree of reproducibility. "Science or Pseudoscience" explores the diffuse and porous borders between mainstream and unorthodoxy. A scientist himself, Bauer points out that some phenomena that have turned out to be spurious, such as polywater and cold fusion, were for a time taken quite seriously by respected members of the scientific community. Other anomalies, such as ball lightning and meteorites, were dismissed by many scientists but turned out to be legitimate discoveries.Meanwhile, science has failed to prove that phenomena encompassed by the 'big three' subjects in anomalistics - parapsychology, ufology, and cryptozoology (e.g., the Loch Ness monster) - do not exist. Rather, science theorizes that these phenomena cannot exist, since today's scientific laws seem to hold them to be impossible. Bauer discusses anomalies such as archaeoastronomy (e.g., Stonehenge) and bioelectromagnetics and looks at how institutional, commercial, and political interests influence borderline research in mainstream laboratories. He also draws a distinction between fraud and commercial huckstering, on the one hand, and genuine knowledge-seeking about matters ignored by the established intellectual disciplines, on the other. Bauer notes that the more closely anomalistic research approaches science, the more strenuously it is criticized by the establishment, often in terms of heresy. Reminding us that geniuses are cranks who happen to be right while cranks may be geniuses who happen to be wrong, "Science or Pseudoscience" offers a measured and thoughtful assessment of this volatile debate.

Reviews:

"[Bauer] is admirably suited to discuss the similarities and differences between the sciences -- especially the physical sciences -- and subjects that have been labeled pseudoscience, voodoo science, heretical science, and mysticism... Bauer's treatment is calm and civilized, and although one may disagree on where on a science-pseudoscience continuum a particular anomaly may lie, one cannot but respect Bauer's position." -- Russell F. Trimble, Science Books & Films

"Bauer develops persuasive arguments for anomalistics, including the historical studies. Its various topics attract popular interest and generate important issues for science studies. It is a useful subject in university courses, as it encourages students to think for themselves rather than following authority." -- Alex Dolby, British Journal for the History of Science

"A well-conceived, nobly motivated work that will be widely referenced in the future. Professor Bauer is extraordinarily perceptive, intelligent, fair to a fault, yet unafraid to challenge the sacred cows of science, personal and public gullibility, and any form of exploitative motivation on either side of the issue. His is a courageous, probably unpopular, possibly even ominous message that desperately needs to be expressed." -- Robert G. Jahn, coauthor of Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World

The modern world has become fatally addicted to science. In the beginning, the natural sciences were simply humankind's storehouse of knowledge about the mechanics of the world. But increasingly, since the late 19th century, science has become a universal role model for how to acquire knowledge. Science-based metaphors pervade our words and thoughts. Science is now our very arbiter of truth, and has even become a surrogate religion. Science now occupies an impossibly demanding cultural role and, inevitably, misconceptions about it are rampant. Therein lies the root of the troubles with science. Curing those troubles requires that we understand what science's manifold faces are and allow each to have only as much influence as it really deserves.

To put some of the adventure back in everyday science, this study is the place to start. Bauer, chemistry professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, upends current contentions about science literacy in a small, dense book that could be the nucleus of a restructuring of how science works in our culture, or, in the author's terms, how its reputation works. The call for more science literacy is a shibboleth in this STS-based (science, technology, society) exposition, which is a sort of deconstruction of the general image of science. Excising popular fallacies, Bauer argues that science is particular knowledge embedded in its time's social context and, therefore, in continuous change. His critique is radical: demystify the science we learn as fact ("textbook science"), keep "frontier science" (research) from being overwhelmed by structural forces in technocracy, avoid "scientism" as a basis of social policy. Science can be made to serve us better, stresses the author, but not as a new mythology.

Since the appearance in 1950 of Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky's radical theories of planetary physics have been the center of controversy. "Beyond Velikovky" presents a detailed analysis of the entire Velikovsky affair, conclusively resolves the major misunderstandings and primary arguments between opposing camps, and leads us beyond to a more complete understanding of the scientific process itself.

Review: Detailed, thought provoking, and the best yet written on a bizarre episode that continues to smoulder in the annals of science."-Owen Gingerich, Nature "This fair minded and lucid study pinpoints the errors in Velikovsky's theories that other critics have failed to address."-Sci Tech Book News "An exceptional study of the theories and criticisms of Immanuel Velikovsky... A thoroughly scholarly and fair-minded work that should serve as an example to others concerned with anomaly controversies. Highly recommended."- Zetetic Scholar "[A] lucid book on an important topic, and one that provides much food for thought on the workings of the scientific community and the way in which its members respond to attacks on their beliefs by outside groups." - Robert W. Smith, Isis ADVANCE PRAISE "A very valuable contribution to the literature on a major controversy of great psychological and sociological importance."-Robert Jastrow, former director, NASA Institute for Space Studies "Bauer's remarkable book will be viewed, even by the Velikovskians, as a great improvement over previous critical studies."-Marcello Truzzi, former director, Center for Scientific Anomalies Research. - Amazon