About this ebook
Science is still the great intellectual adventure, but now it is also seen as an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the 21st century our last. To make sense of all this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions.
In the No-Nonsense Guide to Science, Jerome Ravetz introduces the ‘post-normal’ way of thinking about science. We are to transcend the old simplistic ideas of perfect certainty and objectivity in science—they have failed to protect people and the environment when science has gone wrong and they have enabled flat, dogmatic teaching in our schools. We must now accept that value-loading, uncertainty, and ignorance are very real parts of science, and that citizens must participate in the policies that shape its evolution.
The book also includes a refreshing new look at the history of science, and concludes with a series of questions that anyone can use to start their own exploration of the present and future of science.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.