Customer Reviews

Far Out: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge

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For two years, Mark Pilkington wrote the "Far Out" column for the "Guardian's" science section. These columns have now been collected and annotated in this beautifully printed little book. Illustrations, diagrams, and photographs enhance the text. Anyone who loves scientific inquiry will enjoy roaming through some really crackpot ideas.

Some of the geniuses here belong in the pseudo-scientific or even on the fraudulent fringes of science. But, every once in awhile we learn about an idea from a "real" scientist. For example, Nikola Tesla, who pioneered the use of AC electricity, also claimed to have invented a death ray. (The passage reminded me of the wonderful movie The Prestige and Tesla's teleportation machine created on order of a London magician.)

Each short entry tackles a single report: electronic voice phenomena, The Cerebrophone, the memory of water, Skinner's Box, plant sentience, the Aether, pets predicting earthquakes, etc. Many entries belong in the margins of history, but you'll wonder how many might yet change our future.

I was really sorry when I finished this book, but by Googling I learned that Mark Pilkington is the "Fortean" behind the "Strange Attractor Journal" . He also runs the Strange Attractor Press. His writings, thank goodness, are still available online.

The "New Scientist" concluded that this book "is not a record of failure, though, more a celebration of science's dreamers." These are dreams that enchanted me, and I'm sure they will enchant you as well.

Robert C. Ross

This book is concise and diverse. Covers the esoteric in a well written way.Hard to find subject matter will spark interest for later more in depth research.

Review of Far out: 101 strange tales from science's outer edge. New York: The Disinformation Company by Mark Pilkington.
Reviewer W. P. Palmer

Yes, this is a strange book full of strange pieces, usually only two or three pages long, that test out the edges of science. Some of the accounts of research that purports to be science definitely are a part of science, whilst others probably are not. If different readers were asked to categorise these brief accounts into two piles `science' or `not science', then it would be unlikely that any agreement could be reached. In other words, there is no agreed workable definition as to what science is and this book successfully demonstrates this fact. This could be a useful exercise to try out with a science class.

Many of the stories relate to medical discoveries and cures. For example, one of the more credible pieces of apparatus said to cure cancer was invented by Dr Royal Raymond Rife (see Pilkington, pp. 90-92). These pages can be compared with the Wikipedia entry at URL: [...]. Orthodox medicine has never accepted Dr Rife's claims as they were never independently replicated. Pilkington reports some recent progress in experiments on the Rife microscope. The Wikipedia entry mentions that many of those who copied Rife's apparatus were definitely fraudulent. It is interesting to observe that both the Wikipedia entry and the Pilkington book use the same photograph to illustrate the story.

There are sections that attempt to describe experiments that explore the boundaries between science and religion (Chapter 89- Curses, foiled again), or (Chapter 97- the weight of the soul). #89 gives the results of experiments that have investigated the effectiveness of curses and the effectiveness of prayer. Pilkington on a superficial survey of the data concludes that neither curses nor prayer work. On the other hand Wikipedia reports that `The third party studies discussed here have all been performed using Christian prayers. Some have reported results, some have reported null correlations between prayer and health, and some have reported contradictory results in which beneficiaries of prayer had worsened health outcomes.' In other words, Pilkington can not be considered authoritative on any of these matters, but the book does provide an excellent starting point from which to carry out further research. #97 is considered elsewhere- especially in Weighing the soul; scientific discoveries from the brilliant to the bizarre by Len Fisher, which I have previously reviewed.

In terms of errors of fact, I found that Joseph Priestley's name was spelled incorrectly on p.17 a few lines after it had been spelled correctly. On p.32, Pilkington is a little harsh in describing Blondlot (the discoverer of the so-called `N-rays') either a fraud or a fool, where he was neither, but perhaps that is just a matter of opinion. A wide variety of peripheral science is included and generally Pilkington treats these phenomena with about the correct mix of scepticism, humour and genuine interest.

BILL PALMER

This is a great little book. The stories of the crazy "scientific" ideas that have cropped up over the years are hilarious, but realizing that a large number of people bought into these ideas is even more hilarious. Some of these stories are cliff-hangers though. The author hints that some of these apparently crazy ideas may have some validity and may be developed some day. What one can get out of this book is twofold. (1) People will LIE and will hang on to that LIE for as long as possible and (2) people have an unreal capacity for fooling themselves. Have fun!

This little book is a gem that is loaded with fun to read snippets that are humorous and sometimes quite thought provoking. It is tiny so it very portable for reading while waiting. Great fun.

This book is a quick read and certainly has some interesting tidbits. It's basically a catalog of scientific theories that are a) generally rejected by the scientific community and b) somewhat interesting. They range from obvious crackpot to mildly intriguing. Details are in small supply and the author occasionally inserts informal anecdotes. In short, it reads like a blog and, furthermore, I've little doubt you could write this book yourself doing no more research than some Internet searches. This is good bathroom reading and not much else.

OK, so I'm not exactly unbiased on this one because I loved the articles that author Mark Pilkington wrote for The Guardian newspaper in England and spent about three years convincing him to compile them in book form. But that said, the book is so much better than reading the articles in the paper because now they're expanded, illustrated and best of all ordered in a hilarious and informative way.

You also have to check out the incredible design. The neon green second color used in the book is a beautiful thing!

Oh, and it's under 10 bucks!