Michael Brooks - 13 Things That Dont Make Sense: The Most Intriguing Scientific Mysteries of Our Time

13 THINGS THAT DONT MAKE SENSE

Entertaining engagingly written a worthwhile read for budding explorers of new worlds Jon Turney, Independent

Odd data clusters are crime scenes, over which Brooks combs with the reassuring casualness of an expert to provide riveting cliffhangers of scientific detection admirable Steven Poole, Guardian

This entertaining and often provocative book examines such mysteries as dark matter and dark energy, the prospect of life on Mars, sex and death, free will and the placebo effect, among other head-scratchers The book is at its best when Brooks throws himself into the action. He undergoes transcranial magnetic stimulation to test the assumption that he has free will, and subjects himself to electric shocks for a placebo-response test This elegantly written, meticulously researched and thought-provoking book provides a window into how science actually works, and is sure to spur intense debate. Jennifer Ouellette, New Scientist

Buy yourself a copy, and prepare yourself to be entertained and challenged in equal measure Robert Matthews, BBC Focus

Brooks expertly works his way through hotly debated quandaries in a smooth, engaging writing style reminiscent of Carl Sagan or Stephen Jay Gould every mystery is brought to life in vivid detail, and wit and humour are sprinkled throughout Anahad OConnor, New York Times

Brooks is an exemplary science writer. His explanations have the sort of clarity you often yearn for when you read about science, but rarely find. Im relatively ignorant when it comes to science. But now I feel I can discuss complex things This is the sort of science book one always hopes for. Learned, but easy to read. Packed with detail, but clear. Reading it will make you feel clever. William Leith, Daily Telegraph

Like Indiana Jones in a lab coat, Brooks throws himself energetically into the search and comes back with first-hand news from the wild frontiers of weird science. Iain Finlayson, Saga

Sparklingly written Brooks enthusiasm is infectious Times Higher Education Supplement

A fascinating read This clear-eyed book is a refreshing insight Big Issue

Wow! is one of the things that Michael Brooks includes here it is the signal from space that may have come from an alien civilization but its also the way I feel about this books magical mystery tour. You will be amazed and astonished when you learn that science has been unable to come up with a working definition of life, why death should happen at all, why sex is necessary, or whether cold fusion is a hoax or one of the greatest breakthroughs of all time. Strap yourself in and prepare for a Wow! of an experience. Richard Ellis, author of The Empty Ocean

Excellent Brooks is breezy and fun always readable and never dull each chapter is a little vessel of delights deserves to be up there as one of the best popular science books of 2008/9. Recommended.

popularscience.co.uk

MICHAEL BROOKS , who holds a PhD in quantum physics, is a consultant to New Scientist magazine. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Observer and Times Higher Educational Supplement . He has lectured at Cambridge University, the American Museum of Natural History and New York University, and is a regular speaker and debate chair at the Science Festival in Brighton. www.michaelbrooks.org

13 THINGS THAT DONT MAKE SENSE
THE MOST INTRIGUING SCIENTIFIC MYSTERIES OF OUR TIME

Michael Brooks

This paperback edition published in 2010
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by

PROFILE BOOKS LTD

3A Exmouth House

Pine Street

London EC1R 0JH

www.profilebooks.com

First published in the United States of America by

Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York

Copyright Michael Brooks, 2009, 2010
This book is based on an article that originally appeared

in the 19 March, 2005 issue of the New Scientist

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey
Book design by Elizabeth Rendfleich

The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 86197 647 5
eISBN 978 1 84765 130 3

To Mr. Sumner, for lasting inspiration and fascination.

I hope this repays some of my debt.

Also to Phillippa, Millie, and Zachary for inspiration every day.

CONTENTS

13 THINGS THAT DONT MAKE SENSE

I am standing in the magnificent lobby of the Hotel Metropole in Brussels, watching three Nobel laureates struggle with the elevator.

Its certainly not an easy elevator to deal with; its an open mesh cage, with a winch system that looks like something Isambard Kingdom Brunel might have built. When I first got into it three days ago, I felt like I was traveling back in time. But at least I got it to work.

Embarrassed for the scientists, I look away for a moment and distract myself with the grandeur of my surroundings. The Metropole was built at the end of the nineteenth century and is almost ridiculously ornate. The walls are paneled with vast slabs of marble, the ceilings decorated in subtle but beautiful gold and sage green geometric patterns. The glittering crystal chandeliers radiate a warmth that makes me want to curl up and go to sleep beneath their light. In fact, there are glowing, comforting lights everywhere. Outside, in the Place de Brouckre, the wind is blowing a bitter cold across the city; faced with the bleak December beyond those revolving doors, I feel like I could stand here forever.

The Nobel laureates are still struggling. No one else seems to have noticed their plight, and Im wondering whether to walk across the lobby and offer help. When I had my long fight with the door, I discovered theres something about the shutter mechanism that defies logicwhen you think it must be locked, it isnt; it needs a final pull. But it occurs to me that people who have attached Nobel Academy pins to their lapels ought to be able to work that out for themselves.

I like to think of scientists as being on top of things, able to explain the world we live in, masters of their universe. But maybe thats just a comforting delusion. When I can tear myself away from the farce playing out in the elevator, I will be getting into a cab and leaving behind perhaps the most fascinating conference I have ever attended. Not because there was new scientific insightquite the contrary. It was the fact that there was no insight, seemingly no way forward for these scientists, that made the discussions so interesting. In science, being completely and utterly stuck can be a good thing; it often means a revolution is coming.

The discussion at the conference was focused on string theory, the attempt to tie quantum theory together with Einsteins theory of relativity. The two are incompatible; we need to rework them to describe the universe properly, and string theory may be our best bet. Or maybe not. I have spent the last three days listening to some of todays greatest minds discuss how we might combine relativity and quantum theory. And their conclusion was that, more than three decades after the birth of string theory, we still dont really know where to start.