{"product_id":"the-virtue-of-heresy-confessions-of-a-dissident-astronomer","title":"The Virtue of Heresy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The Virtue of Heresy\" by Hilton Ratcliffe is a astronomy book and space science reference focused on Deep Sky \u0026amp; Solar System. Best for students, researchers, and serious astronomy enthusiasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeresy: The declaration of opinions contrary to prevailing doctrine; opposition to dogma; unorthodox approach to science; method employed by one's intellectual enemy; individual behaviour often attracting the label \"crank\". In the course of using essential theories of science in my decades-long attempt to demystify the heavens, I became increasingly frustrated by ideas that just didn't harmonise. If we were uncovering the truth, I reasoned, then the component parts devised by disparate specialists should dovetail neatly together. But they don't. Classical Newtonian mechanics doesn't see eye-to-eye with Einstein's relativity; both are sneered at by quantum mechanics. Theories highly successful in their own right seemed when compared with one another to be describing different universes. I decided that it was scientific methodology that had gone horribly wrong. I was convinced that some of the fundamental hypotheses upon which I based my enquiry were by strict analysis utterly invalid. They did not describe reality. That was a train-smash, both for me and for the progress of science, as I understood it. This book is an account of that crisis. But fear not, this is not a high-tech science report for über-geeks. It's a storybook filled with myth and adventure. It's science unplugged.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Authorhouse UK","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46420093337799,"sku":"1-99-523-003027","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/9575\/6487\/files\/9781434307279.jpg?v=1776327231","url":"https:\/\/snowflakeskies.com\/products\/the-virtue-of-heresy-confessions-of-a-dissident-astronomer","provider":"Snowflake Skies","version":"1.0","type":"link"}