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The Superbug Crisis: False Beliefs about Antibiotics Are a Global Threat
As millions of Americans visit their health care providers this winter complaining of a cold, surveys suggest that one in four will be expecting their provider to prescribe them an antibiotic, falsely...
View ArticleTen Practical Tactics to Unravel the Uncanny
“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.” —Jules Verne Investigating mysteries can be both fun and...
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Facilitated Communication on Wikipedia gets an Update
Facilitated communication (FC), also called “supported typing,” is back. Well actually, it has never left us; it keeps rearing its ugly head. This time around, supporters are calling it “rapid...
View ArticleTIES Weekly Update - April 4, 2017
The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) stresses the importance of promoting teacher leadership in the United States. Here at TIES we feel that our fellow teachers are our own best...
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Claims of Chi: Besting a Tai Chi Master
In nearly half a century of investigating strange mysteries, I have frequently encountered claims of the mysterious force or power known as qi or ch’i or simply chi (pronounced “chee”). The term...
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Survey Shows Americans Fear Ghosts, the Government, and Each Other
Every year, Chapman University tells us what we fear the most. While “What’s your biggest fear?” might seem a psychological riddle, these researchers have got it down to a science, using rigorous...
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How Russian Conspiracies Taint Social Activist ‘News’
Last year, the news media outlet RT News posted a video updating the story of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a police chokehold in July 2014. The July 12, 2016, video, titled “Witness who...
View ArticleSkepticism, at Heart, Is Not Partisan
The United States has just completed the most contentious presidential election in recent memory. The concept of President Trump is obviously distressing to many members of the skeptical community. It...
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Science vs. Silliness for Parents: Debunking the Myths of Child Psychology
Many ideas in child psychology have been largely discredited (Koocher et al. 2014). Unfortunately, parents and college students often have a hard time distinguishing between research-supported ideas...
View ArticlePublic Debate, Scientific Skepticism, and Science Denial
When scientists discover a distant planet that is made of diamonds (Bailes et al. 2011), public admiration is virtually assured. When the same scientific method yields findings that impinge on...
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Photography Nerds Discuss CSICon
An integral part of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project (GSoW) is not only to create well written, strongly cited Wikipedia pages for the people associated with the skeptic community, but to...
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Can Anything Save Us from Unintended Consequences?
Quick quiz: What caused the Great Recession of 2008? OK, I admit it. That’s an unfair question. It was complicated. If you’ve done some homework, you might be able to mumble something about a housing...
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The Vicissitudes of the Egg: From Vilification to Vindication
Eggs are an excellent source of protein and other nutrients in a convenient, inexpensive package. One egg contains 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of healthy fats, plus: Vitamin A: 6 percent of...
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What Ghosts Mean
Ghostly Encounters: The Hauntings of Everyday Life. By Dennis and Michele Waskul. Temple University Press, 2016. 184 pp. Paperback, $25.95. Ghostly Encounters is the product of two years of fieldwork...
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Mystery of the Paulding Light
Q: What do you know about the mysterious “Paulding Light” reported in Michigan? Any idea what it is? –A. Onion A: Mystery buffs in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula often seek out a lonely road at a remote...
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The Dangerous Delusion about Vaccines and Autism
Hello again! I begin my joyful return to the pages of the “Magazine for Science and Reason” at the age of eighty-eight. Yes, I’ve slowed down in some ways but have embraced medical science...
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To Be More Skeptical about Anti- Vaccination and Vitamin Supplements: An...
Dr. Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center, a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the co-inventor of the...
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Miracle Tableau: Knock, Ireland, 1879
In January 2015, I acquired for my collection a rare Currier and Ives print—an original hand-colored lithograph (Figure 1)—depicting a supposedly miraculous occurrence at Knock, Ireland, in 1879. I...
View ArticleSteller’s Sea Ape: Identifying an Eighteenth-Century Cryptid
Since its appearance in 1741, a mysterious creature has remained controversial—a so-called “sea monkey” that puzzled naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller. He encountered the mystery creature during his...
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Cómo superar a un Maestro de Tai Chi
Artículo traducido por Alejandro Borgo, Director del CFI/Argentina. En casi medio siglo de investigación de extraños misterios, frecuentemente me encontré con alegatos sobre una misteriosa fuerza o...
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