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Lost Lessons of the Strangling Angel
Europe’s diphtheria outbreaks in the 1940s provide a sobering context for modern anti-vaccination claims. When the Strangling Angel was at her strongest in Norway and Germany, 715 people each day were...
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Mythbusting Monsters – Abominable Science With Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero
The cover of Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids may resemble a 1920’s-era science fiction magazine, but the contents are educational, entertaining and...
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Stardust, Smoke, and Mirrors: The Myth of the Mad Genius
The myth of the mad genius began with a misinterpretation of Plato’s “divine madness” and has since gathered support and credibility because of public fascination, media distortion, and enthusiastic...
View ArticleBurzynski Clinic: A Scientifical Year Of Fail
Looking back on 2013, what was the most flawed sciencey story of the year? I pick antineoplastons—touted as a miracle cancer cure with little to no proof. The tagline for this column is “Unmasking...
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CFI-Argentina 2013 Report
Course on Critical Thinking As we do every year, a course was held in March and April on “Beliefs, Pseudoscience and Critical Thinking.” CFI-Argentina, represented by me, was the organization behind...
View ArticleIn the Media: 2013 Activities of Joe Nickell
As CSI’s Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell continued his work—now in the middle of his fifth decade—of investigating the world’s paranormal, historical, and forensic mysteries. A former stage...
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UFO Hoaxes? There’s an App for That!
Anyone who follows news stories about UFOs knows that there are a heck of a lot of them these days, and that many of them involve photographs. Frank Warren of The UFO Chronicles has written an...
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Where Is the Science in Electronic Voice Phenomena?
It is hard to turn on the television today without coming across a program about ghosts and the paranormal. These shows might shine an entertaining light on the unknown, but they are often more about...
View ArticleWhy We Do This: Revisiting the Higher Values of Skeptical Inquiry
I want to give some brief historical perspective about the skeptical movement, take a look at some new trends, and revisit a theme I’ve emphasized before, reminding ourselves why we do this: the...
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The Jersey Devil: The Real Story
The story of the Jersey Devil has become layered with myths and variations, obscuring the original events that gave rise to it. Not surprising considering the story comes from colonial-era political...
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“I Immunise” With The Immunisation Alliance Of Western Australia – Interview...
I'm very fortunate to live in a great part of the world, near Fremantle in Western Australia. I'm also very fortunate that there's proactive people here who are very concerned about vaccination...
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Can Science Support Creationism?
I gave a talk for RIT Skeptics with the above title. This post is the analogue version of the presentation for those who couldn’t attend. It’s also a good way for me to organize my thoughts in a...
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The Valentich Disappearance: Another UFO Cold Case Solved
What did he see? The missing piece of the puzzle in a strange ‘UFO’ case involving the crash of a young pilot off Australia has been identified. What is known as the “Valentich disappearance” is a...
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Why Being Human Makes Evolution Hard to Understand
Our difficulty accepting evolution isn’t just because some religions oppose it or that it is complicated—it isn’t. The problem may be a result of how our minds work. Despite wide news coverage of...
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“Breaking Magic” With Billy Kidd – Magic Meets Science On The Discovery Channel
Last year I was fortunate to catch a few episodes of a new show on the Discovery Channel, “The Magic of Science” also known as “Breaking Magic.” The nine-part series follows a team of magicians as...
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Will Psychics “Cure” Cancer?
A few notes about the article you are about to read: No psychics were paid for their services. For their protection, none of the psychics with whom I spoke are pictured in this article, and all of...
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Losing Our Minds in the Age of Brain Science
Neuroscience and its new brain imaging tools are great achievements of modern science. But they are vulnerable to being oversold by the media, some overzealous scientists, and neuroentrepreneurs....
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Gone Squatchin’: My Day at the Bigfoot Expo
“Are you into Bigfoot stuff?” The man’s question is genuine, and not directed at me but at a man standing next to me. I’m confused, because they are standing on either side of a table covered in...
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Prehistoric Survivors? They Are Really Most Sincerely Dead
A popular gambit in cryptozoology is to say that a cryptid is a real animal that was presumed long extinct but has lived on undetected. Here is why that sounds sciencey, but is bad reasoning. “From...
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My First Trance
Note: This article involves an ongoing investigation. Identifying details are removed or obscured, and names are changed. Image source: Wikimedia Commons I sat with the older members of a group of...
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