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EneMan Humor Medicine

What’s he got that I haven’t? (Part 2)

Our intrepid mascot has been revealing sides of himself this year of which I had previously been unaware. After all, who knew he was so into art that he’d pose nude without embarrassment? Or that he was a Shakespearean actor? Or that he has a way with the ladies? Maybe it’s because he’s so suave […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The shifting sands of anti-entropic woo

Everybody (well, mostly everybody) learns in science and physics class the Three Laws of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, meaning that the increase in the internal energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the amount of heat energy added to the system minus the work done by the system on the surroundings. […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Generation Rescue: Punk’d!

You may remember how, almost in passing as part of a longer post, I mentioned how much cranks can’t stand critics of theirs who write under a pseudonym and try to out them at every opportunity. Indeed, one of the biggest cranks of all, J.B. Handley, the man whose mantra used to be that autism […]

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

Medicine and Evolution, Part 10: “Intelligent design” creationists misrepresenting the role of evolution in medicine

If there’s one undeniable aspect of “intelligent design” creationism advocates, it is their ability to twist and misrepresent science and any discussions of evolution to their own ends. Be it Dr. Michael Egnor‘s twisting of history to claim that eugenics is based on Darwinism, rather than the artificial selection (or, as we snarky ones like […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Steve Novella weighs in on mercury-autism controversy

Dr. Steven Novella, an academic neurologist, President of the New England Skeptical Society, and organizer of what’s become my favorite skeptical podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, took the time to weigh in on the Nature Neuroscience article that I discussed the other day and that engendered dozens of comments, as posts about antivaccination […]