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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Politics

The conspiracy theory surrounding Italian antivaccine scientist Stefano Montanari deepens

Stefano Montanari and Antonietta Gatti are a husband-wife duo of Italian antivaccine “scientists” who like to use the electron microscope to find particulates in vaccines and try to scare people over them. Recently, Montanari was punched by an unknown assailant after having addressed the fascist group Casa Pound. Naturally, he thinks it’s part of a government conspiracy to silence him.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Massive measles outbreaks in Europe: A harbinger of things to come in the US?

Right now, Europe is in the middle of a massive measles outbreak that has resulted in 35 deaths. Is Europe a harbinger of things to come in the US?

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Autism Biology Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Science

Deregulating stem cell quackery in Italy? A bad omen.

Stem cells are magical, mystical things that can’t be explained. At least, if you listen to what docs and “practitioners” who run stem cell clinics in various parts of the world, usually where regulation is lax and money from First World clientele is much sought after, that’s what you could easily come to believe. Unfortunately, […]

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Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

The mistake of criminalizing honest scientific mistakes

Given how many bloggers have already weighed in on the story of an Italian court convicting geologists of manslaughter for failing to issue adequate earthquake warnings before an earthquake that devastated the town of L’Aquila, including Steve Novella, Daniela at Skepchicks, Sharon Hill at Skeptic, and even Instapundit, you’d think that even Orac wouldn’t have […]