One of my major pet peeves is pseudoscience, which Google defines as “a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.” There’s a lot of pseudoscience out there in the world that can spread easily and quickly via the internet, and it often astonishes me what people will believe. There’s […]
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I have an issue with pseudoscience masquerading as science. Whether these ideas have any associated value or not isn’t my concern. My problem is when science-like concepts are used to trick people into believing that an idea is something that it isn’t. My current rant is about dopamine fasting. I recently heard about this from
The Dopamine Fasting Myth Read More »
I recently learned from a fellow blogger about the Dunedin Study, which explored the issue of nature vs. nurture and turned up some fascinating results. The study followed a group of 1000 individuals born in 1972 in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Interviewing and testing with these individuals still continues, and the study has
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I’ve recently come across some news articles about homeopathy that have caught my eye. One was about claims that homeopathy could prevent measles (homeoprophylaxis is the fancy term for this); another was about the Canadian government funding an aid mission to Honduras involving a delegation of homeopaths claiming to cure Chagas disease and other infectious diseases.
Homeopathy: A Whole Lot Wackier Than You Might Think Read More »
Chances are, you’ve heard the idea that vaccines can cause autism. Various organizations and individuals champion this notion; one of the most prominent is actress Jenny McCarthy, whose son was diagnosed with autism at age 2. She has an autism-related organization called Generation Rescue, and on its website is a guide to vaccine safety. Note: Since
Do Vaccines Cause Autism? Science Says No Read More »
We’re regularly bombarded with news of the latest scientific research findings, and sometimes it seems like you can find a study to tell you just about anything. My concern with news reporting of research findings is that many people (including members of the media) have relatively limited research literacy. Research literacy refers to the ability
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