Here’s a great idea: I was staying in a hotel in New York earlier this year, and I noticed that as well as the usual Gideon’s bible, there was also a copy of the Quran. So that got me thinking – why limit the principle to religious books, why not get some science in there […]
Author: Orac
Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.
That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)
DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.
To contact Orac: [email protected]
I wish I could say that this was unexpected, but, given the politics and backwardness of Libya, it wasn’t. The Tripoli Six (a. k. a. the Benghazi Six) have been found guilty by a kangaroo court in Libya: A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting […]
I don’t think I could have done it much better, if at all. Dr. R.W. presents, in FAQ-form, a primer on the difference between woo and conventional medicine, even conventional modalities that are weakly grounded in evidence. A couple of examples: Many of mainstream medicine’s conventional treatments are not evidence based. Aren’t they a form […]
The latest Seed Magazine extravaganza happens to include a “class photo” of all of us ScienceBloggers. Orac should be easy to spot. Maybe I should have gone with the cliche of a masked surgeon, but I’ve got to be true to my alter ego. (No, not that alter ego.) I guess that’s just the lot […]
You may recall how I’ve criticized the infiltration of woo into medical school and medical education in general. Such an infiltration threatens the scientific basis behind the hard-won success of so much of modern medicine over the last century. Unfortunately, woo isn’t the only threat to scientific medicine. Now, there is a growing movement that […]
