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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine

So true, so true…

What should a drug company do if it spends millions of dollars on a compound and it doesn’t do anything? Easy: (Click on the panel to see the whole cartoon.) In fact, I’m surprised more pharmaceutical companies don’t do this…

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

After all this time, Dr. Bob Sears finally tips his hand on vaccines

Yesterday, I wrote a post about what fellow ScienceBlogger Isis would term “hot, hot science.” As much as I love science like that, writing such posts is a lot of work and takes considerably longer than my run-of-the-mill bit of insolent brilliance. Often, after writing an analysis of a peer-reviewed paper like that, I need […]

Categories
Biology Cancer Evolution Medicine Science

Medicine and evolution, part 12: Using evolution to develop adaptive chemotherapy

Three years ago, I wrote about what I considered to be a fascinating and promising approach to understanding tumor biology. This method involved understanding that tumors are in general made up of a heterogeneous collection of cells. Using this knowledge, it is possible to apply evolutionary principles to cancer, treating a tumor as, in essence, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Oprah and Jenny McCarthy: A woo too far

Last week I wrote a bit about what I’ve been tempted to call Oprah’s War on Science but settled for the title of a documentary called The Oprah Effect. The reason, as I have mentioned before, is that arguably there is no single person who does more to promote pseudoscientific and dubious health practices than […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Humor Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Sadly, The Onion gets this one right

Want to know how Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley, other anti-vaccine advocates, creationists, quacks, 9/11 Truthers, and cranks and pseudoscientists of all stripes manage to be heard when they have no science, evidence, reason, logic, or facts on their side? Sadly, The Onion knows: Oh, No! It’s Making Well-Reasoned Arguments Backed With Facts! Run! At first, […]