Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date Samuel Arbesman Current, 2012 ($25.95)
Many medical schools tell their students that half of what they've been taught will be wrong within five years—the teachers just don't know which half. Arbesman, a Harvard University–affiliated practitioner of scientometrics—which looks at how we know what we know—sets out to make readers more comfortable with changes in scientific knowledge, from the status of Pluto to the age at which women should get mammograms. Facts change in a regular, predictable manner and obey mathematical rules, he argues: “Once we recognize this, we'll be ready to live in the rapidly changing world around us.”
This article was originally published with the title "The Half-Life of Facts" in Scientific American 307, 4, 90-91 (October 2012)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1012-90d
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Anna Kuchment is a contributing editor at Scientific American and a staff science reporter at the Dallas Morning News. She is also co-author of a forthcoming book about earthquakes triggered by energy production. Follow Anna Kuchment on Twitter Credit: Nick Higgins
