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Cover of The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date

✍ Scribed by Arbesman, Samuel


Book ID
107359407
Publisher
Penguin Group US
Year
2012
Tongue
en-US
Weight
848 KB
Category
Fiction

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis


New insights from the science of science

Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that Pluto was a planet. For decades, we were convinced that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing.

But it turns out there's an order to the state of knowledge, an explanation for how we know what we know. Samuel Arbesman is an expert in the field of scientometrics—literally the science of science. Knowl­edge in most fields evolves systematically and predict­ably, and this evolution unfolds in a fascinating way that can have a powerful impact on our lives.

Doctors with a rough idea of when their knowl­edge is likely to expire can be better equipped to keep up with the latest research. Companies and govern­ments that understand how long new discoveries take to develop can improve decisions...


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