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Missing ships gone lost in the Bermuda Triangle, crop circles, alien abductions: are you curious about what lies beneath such mysterious events? Then equip yourselves with rationality, adventure spirit and a rich library; and this book, in six lessons full of verve, will do the rest, providing an introduction to the scientific method and showing how to apply it in order to obtain a convincing explanation to a series of apparently inexplicable phenomena.
You will test astrological previsions; you will make conjectures about the miracle of some saint’s blood liquefaction; you will place ancient artefacts of supposed alien origin back to their context… As a general approach, you will learn how to gather information on-site, make an interview, formulate an hypothesis, run an experiment and verify its results.
In fact, as funny as it is, this investigation method is much less frivolous than it may sound: the tools of the trade, more and more familiar as the pages go by, will prove useful also when addressing serious matters such as negationist or conspiracy theories.

The idea
The abundant literature on mysteries, occult, and esotericism capture readers and keeps them suspended at the surface of the most extraordinary facts.
While rationalists and followers of scientism keep reacting with the same old clichés, this book engages with the charm of the unknown, so evidently able to trigger a huge interest from the public, and encourages readers to learn what scientific method is while dwelling into their favourite topics.

N.A.

The authors serve on the board of CICAP (Italian Committee for the Control of Statements on Paranormal), the national expression of the European Council of Skeptical Organizations, founded in 1989 to promote a critical analysis of paranormal.
Stefano Bagnasco (photo), a physicist, works for the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Turin, and at CERN, Geneve. He is also a well known popularizer, often guest on radio and TV and a tireless lecturer on mysteries and how science works to understand them.
Andrea Ferrero, an aerospace engineer, works at the Thales Alenia Space, Turin. He’s interested in obscure and disquieting themes such as Satanism, witch hunts and... statistics.
Beatrice Mautino, with a background in biotechnology, specialized in neuroscience and science communication. She organises didactic laboratories and popular science events on behalf of the Foundation for Biotechnologies, Turin.