Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us [Hardcover]

Dan Agin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312352417 | ISBN-13: 978-0312352417 | Publication Date: October 3, 2006

An overdue indictment of government, industry, and faith groups that twist science for their own gain.
 
During the next thirty years, the American public will suffer from a rampage against reason by special interests in government, commerce, and the faith industry, and the rampage has already begun. In Junk Science, Dan Agin offers a response--a stinging condemnation of the egregious and constant warping of science for ideological gain.
 
In this provocative, wide-ranging, and hard-hitting book, Agin argues from the center that we will pay a heavy price for the follies of people who consciously twist the public's understanding of the real world.
 
In an entertaining but frank tone, Agin separates fact from conveniently "scientific" fiction and exposes the data faking, reality ignoring, fear mongering, and outright lying that contribute to intentionally manufactured public ignorance. Many factions twist scientific data to maintain riches and power, and Agin outs them all in sections like these:
 
--"Buyer Beware" (genetically modified foods, aging, and tobacco companies)
--"Medical Follies" (chiropractics, health care, talk therapy)
--"Poison and Bombs in the Greenhouse" (pollution, warfare, global warming)
--"Religion, Embryos, and Cloning"
--"Genes, Behavior, and Race"
 
We already pay a heavy price for many groups' conscious manipulation of the public's understanding of science, and Junk Science arms us with understanding, cutting through the fabric of lies and setting the record straight.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"JUNK SCIENCE is a passionate, minutely-informed and scrupulously fair analysis of all the abuses and misuses of science that are rampant today--a clarion call to action which concerns us all. One might wish that such a book were not needed, but it is, more now than ever before."--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat

About the Author

Dan Agin has a Ph.D. in biological psychology and thirty years of laboratory-research experience in neurobiology. He is Associate Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago, and editor in chief of the online journal ScienceWeek (http://scienceweek.com).

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312352417
• ISBN-13: 978-0312352417
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for those interested in how institutions are manipulating research for personal and political goals, October 16, 2006

By 

David Sinason "Ph.D." (Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us (Hardcover)

Wonder how two politicians with different views can tell you that science supports each of their positions? Wonder how a corporation's research can support an agenda that is later found to be without basis and in opposition to the public well being? This book provides case illustrations of how governments, corporations, religious organizations and individuals have manipulated science to provide erroneous results and invalid conclusions. If you are involved in research (of any kind) or have suspected that you have been misled - this book is a MUST.
Well-written with a definite passion for truth.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't always distinguish between junk science and pure fraud, July 9, 2007

By 

Edmundo el Profundo (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us (Hardcover)

I was disappointed in this book. It doesn't deal quite as much with the manipulation of science but often just pure fraud. For example, it has a chapter on the tobacco industry's insistence that smoking isn't harmful. But we know that there wasn't so much bogus science going on as much as the industry hiding the results of actual science that pointed to obvious health problems. More than a full page of the chapter simply quotes lies told to the public by the industry. Surely the majority of people who would pick up a book like this already knows of the fraud that had been perpetuated by Big Tobacco for decades. Chapter 10, which debunks the usefulness of talk therapy, was ripe with irony. I largely agree with the author on this but I was really surprised that he never cited a single research article that actually studied the effectiveness of such therapy. I was especially bemused by his statement that "...psychiatry departments will probably disappear by mid-century." (p. 151). How did he happen to come to this conclusion? Who knows? Junk science, perhaps. It really would have been nice to read about how Freud's theories took hold despite the absence of controlled research behind the theory, but the father of psychotherapy's name only comes up in passing as Agin cites Freudian psychonalysis as one of the 23 types of therapy that he eschews in a single sentence.

The book does have a substantial amount of information and it and the author knows his stuff. It's also an easy read. But the 12-page chapters on individual topics that are poorly documented just didn't excite me. And it doesn't really uncover the kind of manipulative research that I expected to read about. It was more a soapbox diatribe against corrupt corporations and lazy or malevolent legislators (a group worthy of derision) than an expose on how actual science is manipulated.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Junk Science, ....a call to reforms, October 23, 2006

By 

Dr. Howard Theodore Block - See all my reviews

This review is from: Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us (Hardcover)

This book by Dr. Dan Agin, " Junk Science" (How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us) is fascinating. Dr Agin clearly draws the line of separation of weak/bad science from the "TWISTING" of science all for the benefit of the entities that he NAMES.
Dr. Agin's clearness of thought leads to honest conclusions. His personal observations and his chapter called "Sources" provide the American public with awareness why deep suffering is happening now, and that this suffering will only getworse, unless an informed American public insists and pushes for reforms.
Dr. Agin has given Americans the awareness in this book.
We ignore his conclusions and admonitions at our peril.
This book is exceptional, and rates 5 stars from me.
Dr. Howard Theodore Block