Physics on the Fringe

By: Joshua Glenn
December 8, 2011

Second in a series of posts suggesting gifts for the hilobrows in your life this holiday season.

An interlocking "circlon" model of elements developed by fringe theorist Jim Carter

As mentioned last month, we’re thrilled to announce that Margaret Wertheim’s long-awaited book Physics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons, and Alternative Theories of Everything has been published by Walker & Co.

Wertheim has spent 15 years studying the works of “outsider physicists” like Jim Carter, a trailer park owner in Washington who has proposed a complete alternative history of physics. Her book is entertaining and thoughtful on that topic, but it’s also a terrific introduction not only to the history of physics as we know it, but to questions about how science works — what science is. Who gets to decide?

Buy Wertheim’s book for free-thinking science enthusiasts in your life… It’s available here.

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