Proof by Adam Kucharski

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR’Insightful, absorbing and entertaining’ TLS’Brilliant’ ALEX BELLOS’Illuminating’ DAILY MAIL’The case for better evidence in post-evidence times’ FINANCIAL TIMES’Profound and utterly absorbing’ CHRIS VAN TULLEKENHow far would you go in your search for certainty? And once you get there, how do you convince others? From the medieval Islamic world to the recent pandemic, scientific progress has relied on different methods of establishing fact from fiction. Today, in the face of ever-increasing disinformation, how we prove things – to ourselves and others – has never felt more urgent. But there is far more to proof than axioms, theories and scientific laws: when demonstrating that an experimental medical treatment works, persuading a jury of someone’s guilt, or deciding whether to trust a new type of financial transaction, weighing up evidence is rarely simple. Bestselling author, statistician and epidemiologist Adam Kucharski ranges across science, politics, philosophy and economics to explore how truth emerges – and why it falters.

How do we know what’s true? The bestselling author of The Rules of Contagion mines two millennia of knowledge to find out

About the Author: Adam Kucharski is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He has worked on global outbreaks including Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19, producing real-time analysis for governments worldwide. He is the bestselling author of The Rules of Contagion and The Perfect Bet, and his writing has appeared in the Observer, Financial Times, and New Statesman. He is also co-founder of WholeSum, a VC-backed AI startup.

12 Mar 2026
 

Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty by Adam Kucharski ISBN 9781788169097