Physics on the Fringe

Reviews / Votes

The book is entertaining--even laugh-out-loud funny in places--but it's equally enlightening. In an elegant narrative Ms. Wertheim has taken on one of the knottiest conundrums in the philosophy of science...how to find criteria to define the boundary between science and pseudoscience. Wall Street Journal A rare peek into this world of alternative theories, that never loses sight of Carter's humanity -- whether one accepts his theory or not. Discovery News Entertaining and philosophically provocative. Chronicle of Higher Education Margaret Wertheim's book discusses her encounters with natural philosophers. She is interested in them as characters in a human tragedy, with the seriousness and dignity that tragedy imposes. -- Freeman Dyson New York Review of Books With insight, wit, and warmth, Wertheim offers a look into the hearts and minds of the "outsider" physicists. Publishers Weekly Margaret Wertheim writes beautifully, passionately, and with great humanity about a most unusual mind. This book is ultimately about big things: What is science? What is the universe? And who says? -- Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein With a vivid storyteller's glee, Margaret Wertheim spins us one of those wide looping yarns that starts out all in good antic fun, only to become more and more confoundingly profound. -- Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Wonderfully captures both the pathos and the brilliance hidden in a venerable tradition of science: the quixotic amateur who thinks he might have figured out the answer to the mysteries of the universe. -- Paul Collins, author of The Murder of the Century