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Clinical trials Medicine

Is anyone surprised by this result?

Ah, science! In no other fields can we ask such amazing questions and, through rigorous experimentation, get the answers. Answers like this: A study commissioned by a phallically named insurance company proves beyond all doubt that the unbridled roar of an Italian supercar turns women on but the soft purr of a fuel-efficient econobox doesn’t […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The revenge of “microfascism”: PoMo strikes medicine again

I hate postmodernism. Well, not exactly postmodernism per se, but I hate it when pseudoscientists and purveyors of dubious “alternative” medicine treatments invoke bizarre postmodernist-sounding arguments to attack science or, in the case of medicine, science- and evidence-based medicine. Usually these attacks involve a claim that science is nothing more than one other “narrative” among […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Surgery

Cancer research: Playing it safe versus taking risks

If there’s one thing that cancer researchers, indeed most biomedical researchers in the U.S., know today it’s that the research funding climate sucks right now. Indeed, after the completion of the near-doubling of the NIH budget in 2003, during which time it was flying high, the NIH budget in essence crash landed–hard. Paylines, which had […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Acupuncture and polycystic ovary disease: A depressing case of science by press release

I’ve railed on more than one occasion about how much I detest science by press release. For one thing, it bypasses the peer review process and reports results directly to the public, which to me is a strike against any study. Indeed, releasing results by press release or using a press release to tout a […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When “gut feelings” about science attack, or: Oh, no! Histidine and polysorbate-80 are going to destroy our girls!

Some people should keep their “gut feelings” to themselves. You know the type: People who have no knowledge about a topic or, even worse, just enough knowledge to sound as if they have a clue about it to people who don’t have a clue but who are at the same time easily spotted as utterly […]