CHAPTER 1: STANDING TALL ON A FANTASY-PRONE PLANET

Carroll, Robert Todd, ed. The Skeptic’s Dictionary. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2003. Also available at www.skepdic.com.

Davis, Hank. Caveman Logic: The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2009.

Dunning, Brian. Skeptoid: A Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena. Seattle, WA: Thunderwood Press, 2007.

———. Skeptoid (podcast), http://skeptoid.com.

James Randi Education Foundation, www.randi.org/site/.

Novella, Steven. Neurologica (blog), http://theness.com/neurologicablog/.

Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. New York: Random House, 1995.

Schick, Theodore, and Lewis Vaughn. How to Think about Weird Things. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.

Shermer, Michael. The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. New York: Times Books, 2011.

Skeptic (magazine), www.skeptic.com.

Skeptical Inquirer magazine, www.csicop.org/si.

Skepticality (official podcast of Skeptic magazine), www.skepticality.com.

Smith, Jonathan C. Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker’s Toolkit. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Thompson, Damian. Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science, and Fake History. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

CHAPTER 2: PAY A VISIT TO THE STRANGE THING THAT LIVES INSIDE YOUR HEAD

 

Brain Games. (DVD) National Geographic, 2011.

Brockman, John. The Mind: Leading Scientists Explore the Brain, Memory, Personality, and Happiness. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011.

———, ed. This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.

Buonomano, Dean. Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Chabris, Christopher, and Daniel Simons. The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us. New York: Crown, 2010.

DiSalvo, David. What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2011.

McRaney, David. You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself. New York: Gotham, 2012. Also visit the companion website: http://youarenotsosmart.com/.

———. You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself. New York: Gotham. 2013.

Ratey, John J. A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain. New York: Vintage, 2002.

Stanovich, Keith E. How to Think Straight about Psychology. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

CHAPTER 3: A THINKER’S GUIDE TO UNUSUAL CLAIMS AND WEIRD BELIEFS

 

Clegg, Brian. Armageddon Science. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010.

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, www.csicop.org.

Debunker’s Domain, www.debunker.com.

Feder, Kenneth L. Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2010.

———. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.

Guterl, Fred. The Fate of the Species: Why The Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and What We Can Do about It. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012.

Harrison, Guy P. 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2012.

———. 50 Reaons People Give for Believing in a God. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2008.

———. 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2013.

———. Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2010.

Jordan, Michael. Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. New York: Facts on File, 2004.

Kelly, Lynne. The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal. New York: Avalon, 2004.

Kurtz, Paul. The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1992.

———, ed. Science and Religion: Are They Compatible? Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003.

———, ed. Skeptical Odysseys. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2001.

Newitz, Annalee. Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction. New York: Doubleday, 2013.

Nickell, Joe. Adventures in Paranormal Investigation. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

———. Tracking the Man-Beasts: Sasquatch, Vampires, Zombies, and More. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2011.

Nonprophets (radio show), www.nonprophetsradio.com.

Plait, Philip. Bad Astronomy. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2002.

———. Death from the Skies! New York: Penguin Books, 2008.

Radford, Benjamin. Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve the Unexplained Mysteries. Corrales, NM: Rhombus, 2010.

Randi, James. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995.

———. Flim-Flam! Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1982.

———. The Mask of Nostradamus. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993.

Schaffer, Robert. Bad UFOs (blog), http://badufos.blogspot.com.

———. UFO Sightings: The Evidence. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998.

Shermer, Michael. “Learn to Be Psychic in Ten Easy Lessons!” Skeptic (blog), www.skeptic.com/downloads/10_Easy_Psychic_Lessons.pdf, 2009.

———. Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown. New York: Times Books, 2005.

Singh, Simon, and Edzard Ernst. Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

Barrett, Stephen. Quackwatch (guide to medical quackery/fraud), http://quackwatch.org/.

CHAPTER 4: THE PROPER CARE AND FEEDING OF A THINKING MACHINE

 

Blech, Jorg. Healing through Exercise: Scientifically Proven Ways to Prevent and Overcome Illness and Lengthen Your Life. Cambridge, MA: Merloyd Lawrence Book by Da Capo Press, 2009.

Carter, Rita. The Human Brain Book. New York: DK Adult, 2009.

Horstman, Judith. The Scientific American: Brave New Brain. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010.

———. The Scientific American: Day in the Life of Your Brain. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press, 2008.

Ratey, John J. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Boston: Little, Brown, 2013.

Reynolds, Gretchen. The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer. New York: Hudson Street Press, 2012.

Shenk, David. The Genius in All of Us. New York: Doubleday, 2010.

Sweeney, Michael S. Brain: The Complete Mind: How It Develops, How It Works, and How to Keep It Sharp. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2009.

———. Brainworks: The Mind-bending Science of How You See, What You Think, and Who You Are. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2011.

CHAPTER 5: SO LITTLE TO LOSE AND A UNIVERSE TO GAIN

 

BBC History (website), www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/.

Becoming Human (website), www.becominghuman.org.

Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Human Ancestors (DVD), PBS, 2010.

Ben-Barak, Den. The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

Bill Nye the Science Guy (website), www.billnye.com.

Brockman, John, ed. This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.

Brockman, John. Science at the Edge: Conversations with the Leading Scientific Thinkers of Today. New York: Union Square Press, 2008.

———, ed. What Are You Optimistic About? Today’s Leading Thinkers Lighten Up. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007.

Broll, Brandon. Microcosmos: Discovering the World through Microscopic Images from 20 X to Over 22 Million X Magnification. Ontario, Canada: Firefly Books, 2010.

Calder, Nigel. Magic Universe: A Grand Tour of Modern Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Clegg, Brian. The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006.

Dawkins, Richard. The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True. New York: Free Press, 2011.

Discover (magazine), http://discovermagazine.com.

Dunn, Rob. The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today. New York: Harper, 2011.

Encyclopedia of Life (website), http://eol.org.

For All Mankind (DVD), Criterion, 1989.

From the Earth to the Moon (DVDs), HBO Films and Tom Hanks, 2005.

Gonik, Larry. Cartoon History of the Universe. New York: Doubleday, 1997.

Hanlon, Michael. Eternity: Our Next Billion Years. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

The History Place (website), www.historyplace.com.

How It Works (magazine), online at www.howitworksdaily.com.

Ingraham, John L. March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen. Reprint, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2012.

Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100. New York: Doubleday, 2011.

Kramer, Stephen (author) and Dennis Kunkel (photographer). Hidden Worlds: Looking through a Scientist’s Microscope. London: Sandpiper, 2003.

Krauss, Lawrence M. A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing. New York: Atria, 2013.

Kurtz, Paul. Affirmations: Joyful and Creative Exuberance. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Loxton, Daniel. Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press, 2010.

NASA Images (website), www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html.

New Scientist (magazine), online at www.newscientist.com.

Nouvian, Claire, The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

NOVA Science Now (website), www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow.

Nova: Fabric of the Cosmos, NOVA, PBS, 2011.

Popular Science (magazine), online at www.popsci.com.

Red Orbit (science news), online at www.redorbit.com.

Rees, Martin. Our Final Hour. New York: Basic Books, 2003.

———, ed. Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide. Reprint, London: DK, 2008.

Sagan, Carl. Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium. New York: Ballantine, 1998.

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. New York: Ballantine Books, 1985.

———. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. New York: Random House, 1994.

Sass, Erik, and Steve Wiegand. The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization’s Best Bits. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2009.

Sawyer, G. J., and Victor Deak. The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.

Science Illustrated (magazine), online at www.scienceillustrated.com.

Scientific American (magazine), online at www.scientificamerican.com.

Shermer, Michael. The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Shostak, Seth. Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2009.

Shubin, Neil. The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People. New York: Pantheon, 2013.

Space.com (website), www.space.com/.

Stevenson, Mark. An Optimist’s Tour of the Future. New York: Avery, 2011.

Stringer, Chris. Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth. New York: Times Books, 2011.

Tattersall, Ian. Extinct Humans. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

———. Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman (DVD), Revelations Entertainment, 2010.

Toomey, David. Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013.

Trefil, James. Space Atlas: Mapping the Universe and Beyond. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2012.

Tyson, Neil DeGrasse. Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012.

Webb, Stephen. If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens . . . Where Is Everybody? New York: Copernicus Books, 2002.

Weinberg, Steven. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

———. Lake Views: This World and the Universe. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.

What Does It Mean to Be Human? (Smithsonian-run website), http://humanorigins.si.edu.

When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (DVDs), Discovery Channel, 2008.

Wilson, Edward O. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.

———. Naturalist. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994.

Zimmer, Carl. Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.

———. Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures. New York: Free Press, 2001.

———. A Planet of Viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.