When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish

Best known as the longtime writer of the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American-which introduced generations of readers to the joys of recreational mathematics-Martin Gardner has for decades pursued a parallel career as a devastatingly effective debunker of what he once famously dubbed "fads and fallacies in the name of science." It is mainly in this latter role that he is onstage in this collection of choice essays.