- WORLD IN CONFUSION.- FOUNDATIONS.- Where did the king go wrong? The boon of falsifiability.- Does anybody want to be a slave? Falsified consequences.- Do continents waltz? Some patterns are accidental, others make sense.- Phlogiston or oxygen? The self-corrective nature of science.- Where did all the dinos go? The force of mounting evidence.- Does she really communicate with the dead? Burden of proof.
- Is ice heavier than water? Theory at odds with evidence.- Archimedes and Hiero's crown: facts may be hard to come by.- Brownian motion: the helping hand of math.- Gambler's world: the miracle of statistical evaluation.- Counting women's teeth: struggling with alternative explanations.- What constitutes a good explanation? Hitchhiker's guide.- The case of mischievous clocks: in praise of simplicity.- Galileo and the cardinals: philosophy behind science.
- From magic potions to modern treatments: clinical trials.- Putting it all together: how to persuade a scientist?.- What is truth, anyway? Are there different sorts?.- WORLD IN COMPETITION.- "Where does most of it take place?" Institutions of higher learning.- "Publish or perish?" Role of publications.- "Is it all about money?" Role of funding agencies.- "Who's best?" Competition wherever you look.
- FRAILTIES OF THE HUMAN MIND.- Francis Bacon's warning: Do not worship false idols.- Other hurdles: prejudice and its relatives.- Devil's snare: ideas too beautiful to be wrong.- How to not to be objective: observational selectivity.- Embarrassing interview: is scientific integrity a sure thing?.- SCIENTIFIC WAYS NEGLECTED.- Heavenly advice: portents and the instruction from the stars.
- Outside the reach of science: superstitions and paranormal phenomena.- What scientists are hiding: the Earth is flat.- Uncomfortable truth: world in the hands of conspirators.- Outside the realm of falsification: blunders in the name of religion.- Social engineering: hazards of unanticipated side effects.- Visions of perfect societies: falsification prohibited.- FOUR TURNING POINTS.- Pendulum: The knack for asking questions.
- From Thales to Euclid: world governed by laws and mathematical proof.- Euclid: the triumph of deduction.- Bacon's gift to humankind: the miracle of induction.