A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age: Scientific Habits of Mind (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780231168724)

We live in the Information Age, with billions of bytes of data just two swipes away. Yet how much of this is mis- or even disinformation? A lot of it is, and your search engine can't tell the difference. As a result, an avalanche of misinformation threatens to overwhelm the discourse we so desperately need to address complex social problems such as climate change, the food and water crises, biodiversity collapse, and emerging threats to public health. This book provides an inoculation against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. Anyone can do it--indeed, everyone must do it if our species is to survive on this crowded and finite planet.

This survival guide supplies an essential set of apps for the prefrontal cortex while making science both accessible and entertaining. It will dissolve your fear of numbers, demystify graphs, and elucidate the key concepts of probability, all while celebrating the precise use of language and logic. David Helfand, one of our nation's leading astronomers and science educators, has taught scientific habits of mind to generations in the classroom, where he continues to wage a provocative battle against sloppy thinking and the encroachment of misinformation.

Author: David Helfand
ISBN-10: 0231168721
ISBN-13: 9780231168724
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/02/2016
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 01/01/2016 pg. 130
Publishers Weekly 01/04/2016
Choice 08/01/2016