Weighing the Soul

Len Fisher ist ein erfolgreicher Wissenschaftspublizist und Autor zahlreicher Bücher, von denen einige auch ins Deutsche übersetzt sind, etwa Reise zum Mittelpunkt des Frühstückseis (dessen Original vom American Institute of Physics zum Best Popular Science Book gekürt wurde) und Der Versuch die Seele zu wiegen. Der ausgebildete Physikochemiker hat an der CSIRO Division of Food Research in Australien, am Physiologischen Labor der Cambridge University, an der Anatomieabteilung des University College London sowie an der University of South Australia geforscht und ist gegenwärtig Gastforscher an der University of Bristol in England. Er lebt in Wiltshire in England and Blackheath in Australien.
"Meine Bücher", so schreibt er, "sollen den Menschen helfen, die Welt durch die Augen des Wissenschaftlers zu sehen und zu verstehen. Dazu verwende ich gerne eine gute Prise Humor, Anekdotisches und persönliche Geschichten der Forscher. Die Grundauffassung aller Wissenschaftler ist, dass die Welt nicht nach dem gesunden Menschenverstand funktioniert. Sobald man dies einmal verstanden hat, kann man die Erkenntnisse der Wissenschaft mit Freude verfolgen, ohne selbst Wissenschaftler sein zu müssen. Ich sähe die Wissenschaft gerne als selbstverständlichen Teil unserer Kultur, auf einer Ebene mit Religion, Literatur, Philosophie und Kunst eben als eine Möglichkeit, die Welt zu betrachten und zu erkennen."

From the IgNobel-winning author of How to Dunk a Doughnut, another slice of the weird and wonderful side of scienceGood science and common sense often don't mix. In Weighing the Soul, Len Fisher shows the path to scientific discovery is frequently a bumpy one that follows Schopenhauer's famous maxim - 'All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.' Fisher tells the fascinating, human stories behind some of the great as well as some of the not-so-great scientific ideas of the past - those that were truly bizarre, peculiar or downright daft, and those that just seemed that way at the time. As he shows, it is often only with hindsight that the two can be told apart, and it is some of those who appeared most wrong - and who were variously ignored, persecuted and imprisoned as a result - that ultimately went on to be proved most right.

From the IgNobel-winning author of How to Dunk a Doughnut, another slice of the weird and wonderful side of scienceGood science and common sense often don't mix. In Weighing the Soul, Len Fisher shows the path to scientific discovery is frequently a bumpy one that follows Schopenhauer's famous maxim - 'All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.' Fisher tells the fascinating, human stories behind some of the great as well as some of the not-so-great scientific ideas of the past - those that were truly bizarre, peculiar or downright daft, and those that just seemed that way at the time. As he shows, it is often only with hindsight that the two can be told apart, and it is some of those who appeared most wrong - and who were variously ignored, persecuted and imprisoned as a result - that ultimately went on to be proved most right.