This is perhaps the first book in my career that I could finish in a single go over a trip to Hyderabad, which implies that Jim Al-Khalili's lucid writing did not allow me to stop anywhere. Though the book has no new information it just glides over the facts on how to master knowledge related to science - or shall I say epistemology?
The title “The Joy of Science” is somewhat a misnomer because it harps only over the previous knowledge of the science of any person without which this would just be a prologue to some advice on writing about Science. The book consists of 8 short chapters that essentially amount to a brief textbook on critical thinking. Many probably won't need these instructions, but for more seasoned readers, there’s not a whole lot of new material, particularly for those already familiar with the works of Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Michio Kaku or Richard Feynman. Here I am presenting the gist of the chapters.
1. Something is either true or it isn't: This part is very general in which the author talks about the opinions which are more valid than evidence. In science, we use different models to describe nature, and thus it is important that we gather data and be true to it. Data Dredging - also known as p-hacking- has been the order of the day where data is misused deliberately in order to find something that can be presented as statistically significant. This part, I felt, recommends us to go for modeling of science and use intelligence to arrive at certain conclusions. What do you feel when someone says Humans have walked on Moon? If the answer is nay, then you belong to that huge group of conspiracy theorists who with half-baked knowledge are ruling the internet.
2. It's more complicated than that: Again the concept of believing in science is discussed with a few examples where people do not accept the facts of science. The theory of evolution implies that life evolves randomly and without purpose but this goes against the religious beliefs of a few. The idea that simple explanations are more likely to be correct than complicated ones is known as Ockham's razor. Likewise, the Theory of Relativity finds mention with a reference to the cosmological constant that was removed and later included in the theory.
3. Mysteries are to be embraced, but also to be solved: There are three types of mysteries, the author says - i) Those that can be explained but cannot be predicted, like Earthquake, Pandemics, etc. ii) Those that are yet to be explained but that exist physically, like the purpose of Stonehenge, nature of dark matter and dark energy and iii) those that cannot be explained rationally like ghosts, fairies, worldly apparitions, and aliens. The purpose of this book, I understood here, was to convey the entire aspects of the Pandemic that shook the entire humanity, on a scientific basis.
4. If you don't understand something....: Well the title itself is so long and it tells us that nothing is beyond our understanding. Anyone with a deep knowledge of the subject, whether a plumber or a musician, will gain knowledge through dedication, time, and effort. It is here that I got to know about the 'Imposter Syndrome' - the feeling that we are not up to a task entrusted to us or that others' expectations of our ability are higher than our own - that I had this one in my earlier part of the academic career. A kind of soft-skill objective can be felt reading this chapter, particularly for the teachers and the students alike.
5. Don't value opinion over evidence: This chapter proved to be the crux of the entire write-up. Because of the huge amount of misinformation through the meta-media and the tendency to glue to the "breaking news" media, we often give out our opinions without proper evidence or logic. We have failed to discriminate between what is important and what deserves our attention. Science requires a certain level of commitment to understanding. The authors go on to make us evaluate ourselves over one of the old paradoxes in physics - that if you can travel faster than light and if you hold a mirror, would you be able to see your image? Yes!
6. Recognize your own biases...: Again a longer title for this chapter that deals with a piece of advice for the incompetent. If you are incompetent you can't know you are incompetent! The skills you need to produce the right answer are exactly the skill you need to recognize what the right answer is. This has a name too - The Dunning Kruger Effect. Solipsism is a view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.
7. Don't be afraid to change your mind: Nowadays, it is impossible to distinguish between fake and real images, videos, or audio, and likewise what is fake and what is real is beyond cognition. One needs to develop strategies to deal with this. Artificial Intelligence comes to the rescue!; for example, the author compares climate change denial to receiving an unfavorable diagnosis from a doctor. It goes like this: Upon receiving the diagnosis, you decide to get a second, third, fourth, and fifth opinion from the best doctors in the world, who all confirm the original diagnosis, presenting to you all the evidence in its favor, including x-rays, lab tests, etc. You then receive a sixth, more favorable diagnosis from a less reputable doctor and conclude, based exclusively on that one assessment, that you’re perfectly healthy after all.
8. Stand up for reality: It is widely acknowledged that things are likely to get worse before they get better - a scientific method that the author advises us to follow. We trust in science because it works and because we recognize where we would be without it.
Conclusively, the author provides some good information and uses some compelling and thought-provoking analogies to drive home his points - particularly how to enjoy science and the joys associated with it.
