This is a collection of important lecture and original articles and commentaries by Martin Perl, discoverer of the tau lepton and the third generation of elementary particles, and this year's Nobel Prize winner. This book contains a fascinating and realistic picture of experimental science based on the high energy physics research work carried out by him. Using reprints of his articles with his commentaries, the author presents the various aspects of experimental research in science: the pleasures and risks of experimental work; the pain and frustration with experiments that are useless or fail; the dreaming about experiments that were not carried out; the constant search for innovation and creativity in the work; and the special joy of discovery. The articles and commentaries range from the early days of bubble chambers and spark chambers in the 1950's to the author's present research, experiments at an electron-positron collider and a search for free quarks. The book is for the general reader as well as the scientist.

This book both introduces the philosophy of science through examination of the occult and examines the occult rigorously enough to raise central issues in the philosophy of science. Placed in the context of the occult, philosophy of science issues become immediately understandable and forcefully compelling. Divergent views on astrology, parapsychology, and quantum mechanics mysticism emphasize topics standard to the philosophy of science. Such issues as confirmation and selection for testing, causality and time, explanation and the nature of scientific laws, the status of theoretical entities, the problem of demarcation, theory and observation, and science and values are discussed. Significantly revised, this second edition presents an entirely new section of quantum mechanics and mysticism including instructions from N. David Mermin for constructing a device which dramatically illustrates the genuinely puzzling phenomena of quantum mechanics. A more complete and current review of research on astrology has been included in this new edition, and the section on the problem of demarcation has been broadened.