#x98;A#x9C; survival guide to the misinformation age scientific habits of mind

We live in the Information Age, with billions of bytes of data just two swipes away. Yet how much of this is mis- or even disinformation? A lot of it is, and your search engine can't tell the difference. As a result, an avalanche of misinformation threatens to overwhelm the discourse we so desperately need to address complex social problems such as climate change, the food and water crises, biodiversity collapse, and emerging threats to public health. This book provides an inoculation against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. Anyone can do it―indeed, everyone must do it if our species is to survive on this crowded and finite planet. This survival guide supplies an essential set of apps for the prefrontal cortex while making science both accessible and entertaining. It will dissolve your fear of numbers, demystify graphs, and elucidate the key concepts of probability, all while celebrating the precise use of language and logic. David Helfand, one of our nation's leading astronomers and science educators, has taught scientific habits of mind to generations in the classroom, where he continues to wage a provocative battle against sloppy thinking and the encroachment of misinformation. Learning how to tell news from fake news from fake fake news: An “important and timely” book on protecting ourselves, and society, from the infodemic (Library Journal). We have billions of bytes of data at our fingertips. But how much of it is misinformation—or even disinformation? A lot of it is, and your search engine can’t tell the difference. As a result, an avalanche of misinformation threatens to overwhelm the discourse we so desperately need to address complex social problems such as climate change, the food and water crises, biodiversity collapse, and emerging threats to public health. This book provides an inoculation against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. Anyone can do it—indeed, everyone must do it if our species is to survive on this crowded and finite planet. This survival guide supplies an essential set of apps for the prefrontal cortex while making science both accessible and entertaining. It will dissolve your fear of numbers, demystify graphs, and elucidate the key concepts of probability, all while celebrating the precise use of language and logic. David Helfand, one of our nation’s leading astronomers and science educators, has taught scientific habits of mind to generations in the classroom, where he continues to wage a provocative battle against sloppy thinking and the encroachment of misinformation. “Provides a vital antidote to the ills of misinformation by teaching systematic and rigorous scientific reasoning.” —The Times Literary Supplement "This book inoculates readers against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. From dissolving our fear of numbers and demystifying graphs to elucidating the key concepts of probability and the use of precise language and logic, David J. Helfand wages a provocative battle against sloppy thinking while making science both accessible and entertaining."--Back cover.;Information, misinformation, and our planet's future -- A walk in the park -- What is science? -- A sense of scale -- Interlude 1. Numbers -- Discoveries on the back of an envelope -- Insights in lines and dots -- Interlude 2. Logic and language -- Expecting the improbable -- Lies, damned lies, and statistics -- Correlation, causation ... confusion and clarity -- Definitional features of science -- Applying scientific habits of mind to Earth's future -- What isn't science -- The triumph of misinformation, the perils of ignorance -- The unfinished cathedral -- Appendix. Practicing scientific habits of mind. David Helfand is the former chair of the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University, where he has served on the faculty for nearly four decades. He has also been a visiting scientist at the Danish Space Research Institute and a Sackler Distinguished Visiting Astronomer at Cambridge University. He was a founding tutor and served as president and vice chancellor at Quest University Canada, as well as president of the American Astronomical Society. He has published commentary in Nature, Physics Today, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among other publications. MAT030000,Mathematics/Study & Teaching,SCI075000,Science/Philosophy and Social Aspects "This book provides an inoculation against the misinformation epidemic by cultivating scientific habits of mind. From dissolving our fear of numbers and demystifying graphs, to elucidating the key concepts of probability and the use of precise language and logic, Helfand supplies an essential set of apps for the pre-frontal cortex while making science both accessible and entertaining."--Publisher marketing. A step-by-step strategy for protecting ourselves against the phony claims, trendy pseudoscience, and sloppy thinking that permeate our world.