VOODOO SCIENCE

Voodoo science by Robert Park was a short but entertaining read. Park a distinguished physicist at the University of Maryland covers a wide variety of sciences that in his eyes are based on no fact at all and are believed by people who are uneducated and or are mislead; he groups all of this into Voodoo Science.

Park specifically goes into great detail about cold fusion and how on more than one occasion the public has been mislead about "discoveries" and ground breaking new science that just isn't true. He concentrates on the University of Utah and the two chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons who "discovered" cold fusion. Park describes that the two went to the media about their discovery without having any proof and when other scientists tried to emulate the discovery no one could do it because one it was impossible and two Park describes that you cannot get energy for free. He explains when a ball is dropped from a height it will never bounce higher that the point it was dropped because everything looses energy and you cannot get it for free and cold fusion was going against that theory and trying to get something for nothing.

One of the best parts of the book is right in the beginning and is what draws you in Park talks about Joe Newman and his Energy Machine. Park explains that Newman cannot get a patten on his machine because the US Patten office will only give a patten to a perpetual motion machine if it runs for an entire year without stopping. Park explains that the Patten office had to make this rule because they have had so many people try to achieve the impossible and once again get something for nothing and create a machine that runs on nothing but itself. Park questions if Newman's machine works why doesn't he just let it run for a year to get his patten.

The book overall was a great read and if your looking for some scientific entertainment it is highly recommended. It gets a little confusing a some spots if your not a big science person, but it isn't difficult to read.