Review of "I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That" on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
This is a collection of Goldacre's columns in the Guardian (British Newspaper), but even if you are a regular reader of his column, this is worth getting so you can re-read them.
Goldacre's subject is those who misrepresent science for various reasons: a more exciting newspaper article, profit, ideology or carelessness.
The back cover cites The Daily Telegraph as saying ‘This is a book to make you enraged’ and it does exactly that. (There is some irony here as the Telegraph is a frequent target of Goldacre’s).
The reason for anger is the sheer scale of the bad reporting or downright mis-reporting of science, which is to say of those facts that we have the strongest grounds for believing, through sources which can have serious negative impact on our lives. If they are wrong, we will use products that are bad for us when they are supposed to be good, …
This is a collection of Goldacre's columns in the Guardian (British Newspaper), but even if you are a regular reader of his column, this is worth getting so you can re-read them.
Goldacre's subject is those who misrepresent science for various reasons: a more exciting newspaper article, profit, ideology or carelessness.
The back cover cites The Daily Telegraph as saying ‘This is a book to make you enraged’ and it does exactly that. (There is some irony here as the Telegraph is a frequent target of Goldacre’s).
The reason for anger is the sheer scale of the bad reporting or downright mis-reporting of science, which is to say of those facts that we have the strongest grounds for believing, through sources which can have serious negative impact on our lives. If they are wrong, we will use products that are bad for us when they are supposed to be good, we will expose our children to needless illness and we will elect politicians whose actions will not lead to the results we expect.
I get most of my science from primary sources or at least university textbooks, so I was well aware of a good deal of misreporting. Until I started reading Goldacre, I had no idea of the extent. This should frighten you. He goes back to primary sources, often digging them out with much effort as the newspapers’ citation style is usually “scientists say...” and in many cases he tracks down the scientists who do the saying, only to find that they themselves deny ever having said any such thing.
On the other hand, I got a good deal of pleasure from the book. I learned a good deal of science as his language is very plain, so digestible at a much faster rate than journals written in the jargon of disciplines I don’t know that well, as well as having some humour and with an engaging story-telling style.
In summary, a book that is a pleasure to read, on an important topic that everyone is affected by and providing knowledge can help your daily life.
