Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World - Rilegato

Reich, Eugenie Samuel

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0230224679 ISBN 13: 9780230224674

Casa editrice: St Martins Pr, 2009

Riassunto

This is the story of wunderkind physicist Jan Hendrik Schön who faked the discovery of a new superconductor made from plastic. A star researcher at the world-renowned Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, he claimed to have stumbled across a powerful method for making carbon-based crystals into transistors, the switches found on computer chips. Had his experiments worked, they would have paved the way for huge advances in technology--computer chips that we could stick on a dress or eyewear, or even use to make electronic screens as thin and easy-to-fold as sheets of paper.

But as other researchers tried to recreate Schön's experiments, the scientific community learned that it had been duped. Why did so many top experts, including Nobel prize-winners, support Schön? What led the major scientific journals to publish his work, and promote it with press releases? And what drove Schön, by all accounts a mild-mannered, modest and obliging young man, to tell such outrageous lies?

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'Eugenie Samuel Reich offers an inside look into how the scientific establishment deals with human imperfection. 'Plastic Fantastic' is a transfixing cautionary tale of how easily wrongdoers can hide and thrive in modern science.' --Jorg Blech, author of 'Inventing Disease and Pushing Pills'

'A riveting tale of scientific detective work, and a story about an important issue in science that is often overlooked. A well researched page-turner.' --Amir Aczel, author of 'Fermat's Last Theorem'

'In a warts 'n all expose of the scientific process, Eugenie Reich investigates the world's greatest scientific fraud. Fascinating startling and highly readable. If you thought science was as pure as the driven snow, prepare to be shocked' --Justin Mullins, consultant editor, 'New Scientist'

Descrizione del libro:

Investigation of a celebrated scientific discovery that was revealed to be fraudulent from a journalist with a unique insight into the case

Su questa edizione

• Editore: St Martins Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0230224679
• ISBN 13: 9780230224674
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 266