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Operation Bumblebee
Most everyone in the skeptic community has a hot-button subject that really gets their heart racing. Mine is psychics. Not the kind of psychic that you meet at the Halloween party or the...
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Dr. Phil and the Hummingbird
A medium made a seemingly impressive guess about a hummingbird on a national television talk show. A follow-up investigation finds it not so striking after all—for the birds, in fact. “She couldn’t...
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Operation Ice Cream Cone
This is the second half of the psychic project Operation Bumblebee. This part of the project I named Operation Ice Cream Cone, for no other reason than it made about as much sense as anything else. My...
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Video Game Violence and Pseudoscience: Bad Science, Fear, and Politics
Research continues to find that violent video games play a negligible role in societal violence. But the politics of a culture war won’t let the idea go. In May 2013, Christopher Harris went on trial...
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Sweet Science of Seduction or Scam? Evaluating eHarmony
The popular online dating site eHarmony claims that its matching methods are both successful and scientific. But a closer look at the evidence suggests otherwise. As long as there are lonely hearts...
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Defending Science-Based Medicine: 44 Doctor-Bashing Arguments ...and Their...
Supporters of alternative medicine and purveyors of quack remedies love to criticize conventional medicine and science. They keep repeating the same tired arguments that are easily rebutted. This...
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A Scientist In Wonderland – Interview with Edzard Ernst
Professor Edzard Ernst has written the story of his life as a doctor and a scientist, in A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth and Finding Trouble. Despite a youthful ambition to...
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The Politics of Science and the Science of Politics
Or: What Do Bill Maher, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rand Paul, and Chris Christie Have In Common? The 2016 Presidential campaign is off to a rousing start, and who would have predicted that one of the...
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A Response to Lars Andersen: A New Level of Archery – Interview with Anna...
Earlier this year, Lars Andersen–a self-described painter and writer from Denmark who first became interested in ancient archery practices about ten years ago–produced a video that quickly gained...
View ArticleStopping Vaccine Denial: Are We Doing It Wrong?
For the past three months, California has been in the grip of a measles outbreak that has affected 126 people thus far with more cases anticipated. Only about 92 percent of children in California...
View ArticlePoltergeist at Amityville?
On December 18, 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into a six-bedroom Dutch colonial home in Amityville, New York. But soon they were driven out, they claimed, by horrific...
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Art of Saving a Life – Interview with Alexia Sinclair
At first glance, you might think that Australian artist Alexia Sinclair has produced a photo for a glossy fashion magazine. The glamorous, fantasy-like image is of three people – but one of them is...
View ArticleWill This New Study Help End Schizophrenia?
In Elyn’s junior year of high school, houses started talking to her. You are special. You are especially bad. Look closely and ye shall find. There are many things you must see. See. See. The houses...
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“You Are Smart!” on Radio
“You Are Smart,” a daily feature for commercial radio, made its national debut recently with host, Jim Underdown, executive director of CFI–LA and founder of the Independent Investigations Group...
View ArticlePlaying Witch Doctor: Hidden Ethics in Skeptical Ghost Investigation
The drive from my apartment to the haunted house was about twenty minutes, but I found myself wishing it would take longer. I wanted more time to get a handle on what I was going to say, how I was...
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To Better Understand Evolution: An Interview with Jerry Coyne
Felipe Nogueira This is the first in a series of regular columns by Brazilian journalist Felipe Nogueira. He is a graduate student in medical sciences in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a prolific...
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The Harper’s Mansion Ghost Study
There are countless ghost hunters around the world, most of them doing what science writer Sharon Hill would dub “sciencey things.” Here we present a case study in bringing more scientific methodology...
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The Amazing Randi’s Most Extraordinary Escape, Part 2
As announced in a previous column, I will be writing James Randi’s biography. We will probably be starting a fundraising campaign this spring. If you want to support the project or just receive news...
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The Trent UFO Photos—‘Best’ of All Time—Finally Busted?
Once again, farmer Paul Trent’s famous UFO photos from McMinnville, Oregon, are a hot topic in UFOlogy. Kevin Randle discussed the photos on his blog A Different Perspective, and a torrent of...
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Ideology Versus Public Health
Indiana has been in the news lately, and most of what we’re hearing isn’t good. First, the long-running comedy show Parks and Recreation came to an end, cutting off a rich supply of charming images of...
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