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Encouraging Evidence-Free Enterprise: Business on a Bed of Sand
Our previous analyses of awards to medical schools and alternative medicine schools by the former National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)1 and its parent National Institutes...
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The 1848 ‘Enormous Serpent’ of the Daedalus Identified
Figure 1: An iconic drawing of the Daedalus animal, as published in The Illustrated London News. This was produced by a professional artist with advice from Captain M'Quhae. Figure 2: Two more...
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“Gorgeouspil” Didn’t Make Me More Gorgeous
Starting to feel age tugging at your jaw line? Does your doctor tell you that you have a case of the uglies? You need a little Alex Chiu. Alex Chiu is the creator of what he calls “the most important...
View Article‘Post-Materialist’ Science? A Smokescreen for Woo
Pseudoscience has been rapidly gaining ground in the past few decades. Dietary supplements and homeopathic preparations, advertised by the disgraced Dr. Oz and his ilk, now constitute a...
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Continuing Education in the Toxin Haunted World of the Cancer Control Society
The Cancer Control Society (CCS) describes itself on its website as “a non-profit organization, dependent upon donations for its mission: to prevent and control cancer and other diseases through...
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‘Reason for Change’: Quacks and Cranks, GMOs and Climate, Science and Philosophy
Reason for Change saw a sell-out crowd of 500 attendees. The Center for Inquiry returned to its founding and headquarters site, suburban Amherst, New York, outside of Buffalo, for its 2015 conference,...
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Does your cat want to kill you?
Let’s start this article with a disclaimer: I am, by most definitions, a “cat person.” I have always loved cats, and I’ve pretty much always lived with cats. I currently have two cats: Brendon and...
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Studying Up with A Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracy
Mike Bohler has been studying and debunking conspiracy theories since the old days of computer bulletin board systems. He ran a system called Radio Free Illinois under the pseudonym of Dr. Oldsmobile,...
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Science Surveyor and the Quest for Consensus
Broccoli causes cancer! Global temperatures are falling! Chocolate helps you lose weight! Why is science news so bad? More specifically: Why do journalists insist on trumpeting the findings of the...
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What’s Wrong with Dr. Phil
I’ve become a little obsessed with Dr. Phil. The no-nonsense sixty-five-year-old southern psychologist has been on the airwaves regularly since the late-90s, when Oprah Winfrey hired him as a...
View ArticleBigfoot Roundup: Some Regional Variants Identified as Bears
Having long observed that many Bigfoot sightings seem consistent with bears, I have for some time been expounding on the subject—showing that, when bears stand upright on their hind legs, they become...
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“Biomagnetism Therapy”: Pseudoscientific Twaddle
In a television interview, a practitioner of biomagnetic therapy claimed she had cured her own breast lump and the metastatic cancer of another person. I wonder how many viewers believed her. On the...
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Psychology’s CAM Controversy
Poor psychology. Times have been tough lately for both psychological science and for the profession of clinical psychology. First, there was the reproducibility controversy: a recent effort to...
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Facing Art and Skepticism: Caricaturist Celestia Ward
In 2014, Skeptical Briefs Editor Benjamin Radford attended a caricature conference in Reno, Nevada. Inside a hotel ballroom full of ridiculously talented artists from around the world, he happened to...
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No Jab, No Pay–Now the Australian Way: Interview with Julie Leask
The Australian federal government’s no-jab-no-pay laws will remove childcare benefits, rebates, and the end-of-year Family Tax Benefit A supplement from parents who don’t immunize their children....
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Guns: Feeling Safe Does Not Equal Being Safe
In the days after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, a dear friend and single mother made an impassioned plea on her Facebook page. After seeing many calls for increased gun control, she explained...
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Zombie Criticisms of Conventional Medicine
Alternative medicine, by definition, is medicine that is not supported by good enough evidence to have earned it a place in mainstream medicine. Some people insist that modern medicine is not...
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What if Alternative Health Fixes Are Making You Unhealthy? Interview with Dr....
A study out this month has discovered that some Chinese medicines contain toxic heavy metals, undisclosed prescription medications, and the DNA of snow leopards, cats, and dogs. In addition, the...
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Burzynski in Court Again
On November 19, 2015, in Austin, TX, lawyers gave their opening statements in the Texas Medical Board’s (TMB) case against cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski. Two years have passed since patient...
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Trump-Rage: How Political Anger Clouds Our Thinking
Attribution: Gage Skidmore Misinformation has been big news lately—and emotional misinformation more so. Donald Trump’s claims that thousands in New Jersey cheered the fall of the Twin Towers, that...
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