The Virtue of Heresy: Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer, Second Edition, Revised and Updated

Heresy: The declaration of opinions contrary to prevailing doctrine; opposition to dogma; unorthodox approach to science; method employed by one’s intellectual enemy; behaviour characteristic of a 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. 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, it’s not a high-tech science report for über-geeks. It’s a storybook filled with myth and adventure. It’s science unplugged. Take your time. This heresy will change your life. Hilton Ratcliffe, Astronomer with a Mental Squint.