The Half-Life of Facts

Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. But it turns out there's an explanation for how we know what we know. Samuel Arbesman shows us how knowledge in most fields evolves systematically and predictably, and how this evolution that can have a powerful impact on our lives. Arbesman takes us through a wide variety of fields, including those that change quickly, over the course of a few years, or over the span of centuries. He offers intriguing examples about the face of knowledge- what English majors can learn from a statistical analysis of TheÊCanterbury Tales, why it's so hard to measure a mountain, and why, for years, everyone was taught the wrong number of human chromosomes.ÊThe Half-Life of FactsÊcan help us find new ways to measure the woorld while accepting the limits of how much we can know with certainty. 'Delightfully Nerdy.'ÊThe Wall Street JournalÊ' An Engaging, insightful jaunt across the backstage of scientific knowlege. Packed with interesting tidbits.'ÊDiscoverÊ'A whirlwind tour of emerging fields of scientometrics, and undertakes a broader exploration of meta-knowledge . . . arbesman is a delightful guide to the territory, patently in love with this emerging field.'ÊNature