title: A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age: Scientific Habits of Mind
author: David Helfand
description: <i>A Survival Guide for the Misinformation Age</i> is an impassioned plea for science literacy. Given the state of the world today, in which scientifically underinformed voters elect scientifically illiterate politicians, David Helfand has written the right book at the right time with the right message. Read it now. The future of our civilization may depend on it. (Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History)<br /><br />David Helfand's <i>Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age</i> gives readers a chance to spend time with one this country's clearest and best critical thinkers. Helfand channels Steven Pinker's ability to dissect language with John Alan Paulos's ability to explain numbers with Richard Dawkins' ability to explain our existence (to obtain food, to avoid being food, and to reproduce) with George Carlin's ability to make us laugh. Using personal anecdotes (he's a Red Sox fan), Helfand teaches us how to think through questions as diverse as why the moon doesn't make us lunatics to why it only takes twenty-three people to have a 50:50 chance that two will have the same birthday. A real pleasure. (Paul Offit, University of Pennsylvania)<br /><br /><i>A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age</i> is a no-holds-barred paean to the scientific mode of thinking. Helfand's wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, humorously cynical intellect comes through at every turn. (J. Craig Wheeler, University of Texas at Austin)<br /><br />Important and timely. (<i>Library Journal</i>)<br /><br />Helfand's work is an admirable response to a long-standing problem of sloppy thinking. (<i>Publishers Weekly</i>)<br /><br />Helfand is a man brimming with incredible insights on the universe. (<i>Dave's Universe</i>)<br /><br />A mustread for anyone presuming to call themselves a scientist and a shouldread for anyone just trying to make sense of the overwhelming volume of data and real and concocted 'proofs' of nearly everything that spews forth from the Internet on demand. This book provides a road map for teaching students how to both celebrate science and how to view their primary source of information with skepticism and caution. Every science teacher should read this book. (John Ziegler <i>NSTA Recommends</i>)<br /><br />For those with an arts and humanities background, this book offers many valuable lessons.... For everyone else it provides a vital antidote to the ills of misinformation by teaching systematic and rigorous scientific reasoning. (Marina Gerner <i>Times Literary Supplement</i>)<br /><br />Highly recommended. (<i>CHOICE</i>)<br /><br />How I wish everyone would read, appreciate, and follow [David J. Helfand's] guidance. (<i>Physics Today</i>)
zlib_text: ![](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  RESPECTING TRUTH
  
  
  Throughout history, humans have always indulged in certain irrationalities and
  held some fairly wrong-headed beliefs. But in his newest book, philosopher Lee
  McIntyre shows how we’ve now reached a watershed moment for ignorance in the
  modern era, due to the volume of misinformation, the speed with which it can
  be digitally disseminated, and the savvy exploitation of our cognitive
  weaknesses by those who wish to advance their ideological agendas. In
  _Respecting Truth: Willful Ignorance in the Internet Age_ , McIntyre issues a
  call to fight back against this slide into the witless abyss. In the tradition
  of Galileo, the author champions the importance of using tested scientific
  methods for arriving at true beliefs, and shows how our future survival is
  dependent on a more widespread, reasonable world.
  
  
  **Lee McIntyre** is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History
  of Science at Boston University and author of _Dark Ages: The Case