Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim examines burning, controversial issues in our society, for scientific evidence underlies everything from pay equity and climate change to compulsory vaccinations. She counters half-truths, fake news and conspiracy theories with facts – and shows where an absence of evidence justifies ongoing lively debate.

Researchers have discovered, the study has shown, science has revealed – today more than ever, in the era of the coronavirus pandemic, results are quoted, compared and stretched, even condemned. That is why it is important to understand how science works in the first place. What is valid data? Where does interpretation begin? In this book, science journalist Mai-Thi Nguyen-Kim explains all of this as entertainingly, knowledgably and calmly as she does in her YouTube videos. Do video games really make young people more aggressive? Should drugs be legalised? Can homeopathy even work at all? By the end, you will be smarter, have a better understanding of how science works and dare to take a stand in debates.

Dr Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim has a PhD in chemistry and is a science journalist. She presents the knowledge programme Quarks on WDR and produces the maiLab YouTube channel, which has received several honours including the Grimme Online Award in 2018. In the same year, she won the Georg von Holtzbrinck Preis for science journalism, then in 2019 she was awarded the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Preis and in 2020, the Goldene Kamera and German Federal Cross of Merit.