Customer Reviews

Science Was Wrong: Startling Truths About Cures, Theories, and Inventions "They" Declared Impossible (English and English Edition)

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Over the centuries there have been many errors in judgement made by scientists and engineers - some involving apparent discoveries that were simply wrong, some involving important discoveries that were simply ignored. Eventually, hard, reproducible experimental evidence became so overwhelming that the truth or fallacy of the matter became clear and formally (although sometimes reluctantly) recognized. Several books have been written about such matters; this is one.

A few of topics discussed here are: aviation, space exploration, cold fusion, climate change, some medical issues and a few matters tainted by politics. In most, but not all, cases the new paradigms were eventually accepted. Now the last section, which occupies about 20% of the book, pertains to psi phenomena, UFOs and alien abductions. Having illustrated that so many scientific misjudgements have been made in the past, as well as occasional resistance towards accepting the veracity (or lack thereof) of observed scientific/physical phenomena, the authors, two well-known ufologists, then argue that the same problems apply to the topics discussed in the last section. Essentially, this book appears to be a plea for more serious open-minded research in paranormal phenomena.

The writing style is lively, friendly, engaging, dense with fascinating information and quite accessible; I found it quite captivating. This book can be enjoyed by anyone, no matter what their beliefs are about paranormal phenomena. This includes science buffs and those interested in the history of science, particularly how new discoveries can be suppressed/ignored/disbelieved until the evidence becomes extraordinary.

SCIENCE was WRONG is a documentation of Scientific Claims that have been made throughout history that turned out to be completely false.

The refreshing twist about this book is that it is BASED ON FACTS! And to top that off, the authors can qualify every statement in the book.

It is an easy read because Mr. Friedman and Ms. Marden don't make the topic difficult to understand with smoke and mirrors. Pure and Simple Facts!

Regardless if you are a Science/History Buff or just are interested in the "comings and goings" in the world and how they effect us, you will get a kick out of this book. I have to warn you however, that there will be times when you roll your eyes at how silly we as human beings have historically jump to conclusions and made assumptions that did not serve us well.

In addition this book reminds you to ask questions and that it is okay to need further information before making important choices in your lives.

This is another home-run-hit by the authors Friedman and Marden.
Suzanne Ramsey
Mooresville, NC

I was absolutely enthralled by this book and couldn't put it down. Brilliant, thorough research, brilliant writing. Despite my background as a physics/engineering major in college, I found the first five chapters on technology to be very informative and incredibly fascinating.

Even more enthralling were chapters 6-8 on medical science. I am a physician/cardiologist; though I knew some of the basics of what you covered in these chapters, I had no idea of the true history of these events and persons - and the egos, rigid closed minds, political battles and personal vendettas that were involved. These chapters should be required reading for anyone in the medical profession! And the one on Semmelweis should be read by every woman!

The chapter on Global Warming was the best condensed presentation of the issue that I have ever read, and completely convincing. Also, I had known next-to-nothing about the eugenics movement in the US before reading that chapter. Frightening! Equally alarming was the chapter on the massive environmental problems of mercury. The scientific data on psi phenomena and UFO's represents years of intensive scientific research and is quite compelling.

This book provided me with some of the most stimulating and enlightening reading that I've had in years. Congratulations to the authors for such brilliant research and such elegant, brilliant, gripping writing!

This book presents an intriguing look into our past. A past which is littered with examples of people making their minds up without studying the evidence. Even worse is when they do study the evidence, and they then reject certain evidence which does not fall in line with their pre-conceived positions. From mankind never gaining the ability of flight to the gay plague, many scientific advances were either hindered or stopped altogether given our tendency to follow our egos instead of the evidence. This was a very well written and well paced book.

Having been impressed by both the intelligence and objectivity of nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman for more than a decade, and more recently impressed by co-author Kathleen Marden's analytical mind, when I had a chance to review a friend's copy of this book, it was immediately a "I have to have my own copy" book.Science Was Wrong: Startling Truths About Cures, Theories, and Inventions "They" Declared Impossible

The content is both interesting and exciting. I would give a copy as a gift to everyone I know and be convinced they would also be captured by the content.

SCIENCE WAS WRONG: STARTLING TRUTHS ABOUT CURS, THEORIES, AND INVENTIONS "THEY" DECLARED IMPOSSIBLE offers a fascinating blend of science and history, charting scientific scofflaws whose criticism was later proved wrong. From the impossibility of space travel to ancient Sanskrit germ theory proposals that were dismissed until the 19th century, this is a fun, enlightening read!

This is the latest book by Mr Friedman with Kathleen Marden given co-authorship. Ms Marden does the proof reading and some research for Mr Friedman.

This book is also a hodgepodge of scientific nay-sayers when there was a new idea or thought introduced. It has the usual "It'll never work or fly" comments for most of the book. Some of them are interesting, but most are already known. I liked the political part of the book and do agree with the chapter on global warming. I do think humans are partly responsible for climate change and think we really need to take care of the planet so I differ on some parts of the chapter.

Mr Friedman saves the best stuff for the last part, and that is where the disappointment comes in. On the psi powers chapter, Mr Friedman is upset that those responsible for testing to see if someone had special abilities upped it to five out of seven correct choices instead of four out of seven correct. I would agree with the five out of seven as four would still show that while lucky it is still chance. I do think there are many who possess special psionic abilities, but when testing for this there has to be very high standards. Uri Geller shows us that any magician can fool many people.

The UFO part of the book seems to be a reprint of a lot of what Mr Friedman has stated before. Nothing new is discussed with the exception of the finding of exoplanets. The abduction part is the final chapter and that is the usual we have to take the subject seriously. My biggest problem is most researchers in that field rely too heavily on hypnotic regression which cannot discern reality from fantasy. I do agree there are many great cases with lots of physical evidence that gets ignored by the debunkers.

The last three chapters are also very short which might upset many of the fans of these types of books. Also, I was not overly impressed with it as I have read this stuff before. I think it is a good reference book for me on a lot of the scientific finds and naysayers, but can't really recommend it for people to read. If you find it at the library you can skim it or bring it home to check out a few chapters. But I don't think money should be spent on this unless it is in the bargain basement bin.

I am a huge fan of Mr Friedman, but I think this is a lesser work from him as I expect a lot more. Any fans of Mr Friedman's work might want to get this just for their collections.

Stanton's latest book is well researched and for a non-fiction title, fairly entertaining. He makes the case that when scientists and astronomers in particular make pronouncements on the future of technology they are frequently wrong. The point is that rejecting the notion that ufo's are not real because they do things that defy conventional explanation and a scientist proclaims that it is not possible, may be foolish as science and scientists have a long and distinguished history of being wrong. Full disclosure, I know Stanton Friedman and I am a former scientist. Both of which probably influenced my opinion. Still a good read though.

I liked this book, was fast & had lots of stuff that we've all heard before but forgot, worth the money and the time.

But one thing did strike me as odd, and I mean it stuck out like a sore thumb. In the middle is a chapter about Eugenics (y'know where Khan came from in Star Trek and what Heinlein like to play with in his 'Cat who walked through walls' era universe), and in that chapter the writer really goes overboard on the complete rottenness of Eugenics.

Don't get me wrong... I too fully think that the extremes and even the moderate and soft aspects of application of eugenics are morally incorrect and so it was not the coverage of eugenics. It was the odd way that these judgement statements were written. It felt clearly like the writer (or maybe the editor) was trying very very hard to be clear that they were not advocating eugenics, but it went so overboard that it felt like a fake... which kinda went against the grain of the book.

Just my 2 pennies

Stanton Friedman a wonderful guy, a great interview, I have interviewed him
on my own internet show. He is very giving of his time and seldom will turn someone down if they would like to interview him. A highly respected man by millions.

The editorial and rcommendations of the book/in the book by Linda Moulten Howe,Bruce Maccabee,and Rob Swiatak are not fair if you're looking for honest thoughts on the content of the book. Why? Because they are all his friends who are established in their own particular areas of UFOlogy etc.and have known each other for years. It's not the same as having the New York Times or other such organizations review it and give it a good rating.

This field is not an easy one to keep your name up front, and they have all done a great job of doing this on their own over the years.. However this book shows to me that Stanton is now writing about areas that any student in school has knowledge of.

If you have never read a book by Stanton Friedman then this book will
perhaps be of interest to you. It simply spelled out to me, "I need some more money"! Sorry Stanton!