Categories
Biology Medicine Science

YouTube Sunday: We are the PCR, I think

I don’t really care if this is cynical viral marketing or not. I don’t even care that half the science blogosphere has picked it up (with no doubt the other half to pile on in the next few days). This is just so frikkin’ brilliant that I’m going to join in, lemming-like, too, heedless of […]

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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution History Holocaust denial Medicine Politics Quackery Science

Ron Paul: Quackery enabler

Lately, bloggers, including some of my fellow ScienceBloggers, have been expressing various concerns about the phenomenon that is Ron Paul, the Republican candidate who’s ridden a wave of discontent to do surprisingly well in the polls leading up to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. First, Jake and Greg have pointed out that Ron […]

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Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Skepticism and the scientific consensus

It figures. Some of the most interesting questions and posts showed up right before Christmas, just the time when I didn’t have time to discuss and (hopefully) expand upon them. Neither, I’m guessing, did anyone else, which is unfortunate because this post was about an issue worth further discussion in the skeptical blogosphere. I’m talking […]

Categories
Clinical trials Medicine Science

The Big Pharma conspiracy is not doing its job

If you listen to what advocates of homeopathy, acupuncture, or whatever form of so-called “alternative” medicine you can think of (in reality, non-evidence-based medicine for the most part), you’d think that physicians are in the pockets of Big Pharma, hopeless slaves to its propaganda, addicted to its tchotchkes and swag. Sadly for Big Pharma, they […]

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Blogging Medicine Science

Oh, no, TIME Magazine’s Michael Lemonick hates me…

…well, not really: OK, I don’t really hate them. But it used to be that science journalists stood between scientists and the public. The scientists did research, then we asked questions and translated their dry jargon and complicated ideas into scintillating prose. Sure, there were a few scientists, like Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould and […]