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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The danger of science denialism

Although this blog is not the Denialism Blog, there is no doubt that one of the overarching themes of Respectful Insolence has been, since its very beginning, combatting science denial. Go back to the very beginning and read a couple of my earliest posts, dating way back to 2004. In one of them I discussed […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The Long Dark Tea-Time of Homeopathy

Sometimes politicians actually get it right. I know, I know, it makes me choke on my words to admit it, but sometimes politicians can actually get science right. I’m referring to something that happened in the U.K., yesterday, when the Science and Technology Select Committee delivered its verdict on homeopathy. Indeed, the Committee has gone […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Mercola sells the delusion of homeopathy

It’s a really tough competition, but if I had to choose the most ridiculous form of quackery out there, I’d have to choose homeopathy. Although it’s common for so-called “alternative” medicines to be so utterly implausible from a scientific standpoint that it is not unreasonable, barring very compelling positive evidence, to provisionally reject them as […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for H1N1 influenza and cancer? Woo at its finest!

There are times when I get really depressed writing this blog. It’s not because I don’t enjoy it, although like any long term hobby my blogging does occasionally feel like more of an obligation than a hobby. That’s only part of the time, though. Most of the time I really do enjoy what I do. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Homeopathy as “nanopharmacology”? The only thing “nano” is the quantity of the science involved

It would appear that during my mini-hiatus (indeed, a homeopathic hiatus, so to speak) to celebrate having passed the fifth anniversary of the start of this blog and being irritated by some of my colleagues enough to risk getting myself in a little trouble, I actually missed something that normally I’d leap on like a […]