Science off the wall

One of the points this book makes is that it is often difficult to distinguish a sound hypothesis from something completely off the wall

The philosopher Arthur Koestler said, “The progress of science is generally regarded as a kind of clean, rational advance along a straight ascending line; in fact, it has followed a zigzag course”. This book is all about the zigs and zags and peculiar dead-ends science has explored, along with expositions of the philosophy of science and pseudoscience thrown in. 

It is a rambling, highly entertaining set of anecdotes about scientists and philosophers. It describes many of the weird things done in the name of science. Interleaved with the strange science, there are the potted biographies of the crazy individuals who performed