cover image Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom

Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom

Peter W. Huber. Basic Books, $23 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-465-02623-4

Forbes magazine columnist Huber uncovers another cost of science illiteracy in the U.S.: the unwarranted authority of ``junk science'' as legal testimony in our litigious society. This anecdotal history of science in the service of liability lawyers--the ``expert witness'' industry--is both a stylish legal brief for sensible reforms and a side tour of the medical follies of the century. Huber condemns the ``verbal dilapidation of science'' by rogue scientists posing as misunderstood Galileos and the ``let-it-all-in'' atmosphere of the courts. Legal scholars and attorneys might well take note of Huber's observations, while all readers can take pleasure in his tempered yet passionate appeal to restore the rule of science fact in our courts. (Sept.)