| JUNK SCIENCE An Overdue Indictment of Government, Industry and Faith Groups That Twist Science for Their Own Gain Dan Agin, Ph.D. New York: St. Martin Griffin, 2006 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-312-37480-8 | ||||
| ISBN 0-312-37480-1 | 323pp. | SC | $14.95 | |
| Page 20: | "2. The origin of variations among members of a species are caused by the environment." |
| This is clumsy writing: S/B simply "variations". Removing the extra words also eliminates the error of number. |
| Page 28: | "The test was simple: Placenta was boiled, and the denatured protein treated with serum..." |
| This is correct, but it seems awkward. I would write "Placental tissue was boiled". |
| Page 76: | "Target cells, in turn, which may contain specific receptors for specific hormones respond according to their degree of specialization and their functional and nutritional status." |
| Extra word: S/B "receptors for specific hormones". |
| Page 77: | "...and in vivo the hormone tends to promote synthesis of protein, promote reduced fat deposition, and promote growth and mitosis of cartilage cells." |
| Confusing phrase: S/B "reduce fat deposition" or something similar. |
| Page 79: | "But that does not mean there is no active scientific research underway on longevity in man and other animals.." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 80: | "Caenorhabditas elegans is a small (1 mm) nematode, transparent, hermaphroditic, free-living, and found in soil." |
| Especially in New Hampshire, one presumes. |
| Page 145: | "An enormous amount of words are constantly poured out by professionals about the theoretical foundations of this or that talk therapy..." |
| Number error: S/B "Enormous amounts". |
| Page 149: | "...while prescription-writing "biological" psychiatrists who do not do talk therapy are known to have an uncertain command of general medicine and are often too unfamiliar with the psychodynamic problems of their patients." |
| Probably an inadvertent juxtaposition of words: S/B "are too often unfamiliar". As written, it implies that being somewhat unfamiliar may be okay. |
| Page 205: | "The Church has always disdained using the Bible as a literal history of the natural world, so it's position has always been non-fundamentalist." |
| Verb contraction instead of possessive: S/B "its position". (Argghhh...) |
| Page 222: | "Technically, Krauthammer concerns himself with the stage from the fertilized ovum through the blastocyst stage (ovum-morula-blastocyst) rather than with the embryo stage, but we'll use the terms 'embryo' to denote all the entities." |
| Improper plural: S/B "term 'embryo'". |
| Page 229: | "During the past thirty years the media has consistently produced twisted science in its reporting of cloning..." |
| Number error: S/B "the media have" (and "their reporting"). |
| Page 229: | "The new nucleus is reprogrammed by the egg cell ..." |
| This looks like inadvertent juxtaposition, but it is correct. However, a better word than "reprogrammed" might be "reset". |
| Page 230: | "During the past thirty years the media has consistently produced twisted science in its reporting of cloning..." |
| Number error: S/B "the media have" (and "their reporting"). |
| Page 286: | "Despite its frequent manifestos of professional responsibility, the media is not in public service, and most entities in the media do not exist to inform the public, but instead exist to entertain the public and sell advertising adjacent to or embedded in that entertainment. Even "nonprofit" media supported by the public have lost their way..." |
| Confusion over whether "media" is singular or plural. |
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