Anthropic Awareness - by Csaba Szantay Jr (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Anthropic Awareness: The Human Aspects of Scientific Thinking in NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry blends psychology, philosophy, physics, mathematics, and chemistry, describing a human-centered philosophy of the essence of scientific thinking in the natural sciences and in everyday life.

It addresses the reasons why we are prone to make errors in our conclusions and how to avoid such mistakes, also exploring a number of the "mental traps" that can lead to both individual mistakes and mass misconceptions.

The book advocates that by understanding the nature of these mental traps we can adopt tactics to safely evade them. It includes Illustrative examples of common scientific misunderstandings and mental traps in both the theory and real-life application of NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Review Quotes

"Reading this book made me even more aware of how much caution one needs to exercise to avoid confirming what one wants to believe...an excellent lesson for everyone in science, although admittedly people working in synthesis and/or structure elucidation will be the ones appreciating it the most." --Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry