This challenging yet accessible compilation of readings on critical thinking offers a much-needed balance to books on "fringe" beliefs of all types. Highly recommended.Library Journal
The authors train the light of reason and science on the murky waters of paranormal occurrences, hoaxes and popular myths and offer facts to counterbalance the assertions of New Agers and the nonsense of supermarket tabloids.Booklist
This newest collection of essays and articles from the Skeptical Inquirer addresses engrossing and important issues at the intersections of science and popular belief.
The Hundredth Monkey takes its title from philosopher Ron Amundsen's exposé of the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon", a claim about collective consciousness. Forty-three essays by thirty-nine authors, including Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, Paul Kurtz and James Randi, examine aspects of paranormal and fringe-science beliefs from an authoritative, scientific point of view. The penetrating and entertaining essays, many with timely Postscripts, are grouped into nine categories: Understanding Human Need, Encouraging Critical Thinking, Evaluating the Anomalous Experience, Considering Parapsychology, Examining Popular Claims, Medical Controversies, Astrology, Crashed-Saucer Claims and Controversies Within Science. Scientists and scholars discuss the burden of skepticism and the delicate balance between a creative openness to new ideas and the relentless scrutiny of new claims. A classic sourcebook for scientifically responsible explanations of controversies, hoaxes, bizarre mysteries and popular cultural myths.
Science writer Kendrick Frazier is editor of the Skeptical Inquirer and former editor of Science News. He is author of four books on astronomy and nature and has edited two previous collections of essays from the Skeptical Inquirer: Paranormal Borderlands of Science and Science Confronts the Paranormal.