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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Rosie O’Donnell vs. David Kirby on the “causation” issue of autism: Guess who loses?

Pity poor David Kirby. After all, he made his name by hitching his star to a losing hypothesis, namely that the mercury in thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. He wrote a book about it, Evidence of Harm, back in 2005 and has milked that sucker dry ever since. Most recently, his appearances culminated in a […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The New England Journal of Medicine blows an opportunity

I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn’t have time to serve up a heapin’ helping of that Respectful Insolence™ you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately, […]

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Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Medicine and Evolution, part 8: Two major medical misconceptions about evolution parroted by a Professor of Neurosurgery

I’m getting really, really tired of this. You’ve all read my rants at the propensity of surgeons who clearly don’t have clue one about evolutionary theory spouting off ignorantly about the alleged shortcomings of evolution as a theory while either explicitly or implicitly promoting the pseudoscience of “intelligent design” creationism. I don’t think I have […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: You just might be an “altie” if… (2007 edition)

I didn’t get back home until late last night; unfortunately there was no time to do a segment of Your Friday Dose of Woo that was up to my standards. Fortunately, there’s something that I’ve been holding in reserve for just such an occasion that fits right in. Long-timers may remember that, near the very […]

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Biology Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Train wreck, thy name is Egnor!

It figures. After my having written repeated debunkings of various physicians who are creationists (mostly of the “intelligent design” variety), in retrospect I should have seen this one coming. I should have seen that the Discovery Institute, eager to use anyone they can find whom they can represent to the public as having scientific credentials […]