The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date by Samuel Arbesman
I love reading books about fields of science that I’ve never even heard of before. Did you know about science metrics? I didn’t.
It’s hard to talk about what was in this book because I don’t have any other books I’ve read to compare it to. Basically, it talks about how knowledge expands, and how things we know are refuted. I’ve often thought that we aren’t right to be smug about how little our grandparents knew about the world (and how much they got wrong) because so much of what we know is true isn’t, we just don’t know which is and which isn’t.
This isn’t an especially fluffy book to read. I found I had to really concentrate to make sense of what was going on in parts. Also, it lacks colorful anecdotes, such as are found in my more favorite nonfictions (Sam Kean, Malcolm Gladwell, Mary Roach, etc.) Still, I generally favor the first book of any subgenre that I’m exposed to, because I adore novelty.
I recommend this book for science buffs and library geeks.
