Reviews

The Scientist, the Madman, the Thief and their Lightbulb by Keith Tutt Simon & Schuster, £7.00, ISBN 0743449762 This fascinating book covers a good selection, though admittedly...

Flat Earth? Round Earth? by Theresa Martin Prometheus Books, $12, ISBN 1573929883 Two schoolboys argue about the shape of the world. The teacher says it’s a sphere,...

The Sense of Being Stared at: And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind by Rupert Sheldrake Hutchinson, £17.99, ISBN 0091794633 This is a book about human and...

Eureka!: The Birth of Science by Andrew Gregory Icon Books UK, £6.99, ISBN 1840463740 Books on philosophy are often encyclopeadic and hard to digest, interesting but boring;...

Darwin and the Barnacle by Rebecca Stott Faber, £14.99, ISBN 0571209661 What happens when someone brought up as a strict Christian fundamentalist abandons her faith and writes...

Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O by Christopher Wanjek Wiley & Sons, $15.95, ISBN 047143499X In this enjoyable history of quackery,...

Placebo: The Belief Effect by Dylan EvansHarperCollins Publishers, £16.99, ISBN 000712612 3“Placebos are treatments that only work if you believe in them.” My belief...

Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the World's Leading Paranormal Inquirers by Paul KurtzPrometheus Books, $27, ISBN 1573928844It’s almost impossible to summarise this brick of...