Junk Science How Politicians Corporations & Other Hucksters Betray Us

“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 that concerns us all.”—Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

The American public is suffering from a rampage against reason by special interests in government, commerce, and the faith industry. In Junk Science, Dan Agin offers an overdue indictment of the groups that twist science for their own gain.

Provocative, comprehensive, and hard-hitting, Agin argues from the center that we will pay a heavy price for the follies of people who consciously distort the publics understanding of the real world. With entertaining candidness, he reveals the data faking, reality ignoring, fear mongering, and outright lying that contribute to intentionally manufactured public ignorance. Agin outs the factions twisting scientific data to maintain riches and power in sections including:

--  “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 publics understanding of science, and Junk Science arms us with understanding, cutting through the fabric of lies and setting the record straight.

"Agin is one angry empiricist...focused, extremely articulate, skilled in debate, and above all, dedicated only to what can be experienced through the senses and duplicated in the laboratory."--Chicago Sun-Times

“An eye- and brain-opener, fraught with insight and plenty of astute observations and illustrative cases-in-point.”--The San Diego Union-Tribune

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.

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).