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Biology Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Is there a reproducibility "crisis" in biomedical research?

Most scientists I know get a chuckle out of the Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR), a humor journal that often parodies scientific papers. Back in the day, we used to chuckle at articles like “Any Eye for an Eye for an Arm and a Leg: Applied Dysfunctional Measurement” and “A Double Blind Efficacy Trial of […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Sh*t naturopaths say, part 5: Ozone therapy, honey, and attacks on Change.org petitions

Those of us living in Michigan who support science-based medicine have been forced to deal with a bill that, if passed, would grant practitioners of unscientific “medicine” a wide scope of practice—almost as wide as that of primary care practitioners such as pediatricians, internists, and family practice doctors. I’m referring to HB 4531, a bill […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaccine activists gleefully attack and dox a 12-year-old boy who made a pro-vaccine video

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the antivaccine movement, it’s that its members dislike being criticized. Oh, hell, let’s be honest. The really, really hate criticism and react very, very badly to it. Whereas you or I or other skeptics might react to criticism by trying to address it using facts, science, and reason, […]

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Medicine

How is the cell phone-cancer myth like Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th slasher flicks?

There are certain myths that are frustratingly resistant to evidence, science, and reason. Some of these are basically medical conspiracy theories, where someone (industry and/or big pharma and/or physicians and/or the government) has slam-dunk evidence for harm but conspires to keep it from you, the people. For example, despite decades worth of negative studies, the […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Integrative medicine and spoon bending at the University of Alberta and "Bigfoot skepticism"

After over 11 years at this blogging thing, I periodically start to fear that I’m becoming jaded. In particular, after following the infiltration of quackery in the form of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), now more commonly known as “integrative medicine,” because it integrates CAM with evidence-based medicine. Of course, in reality, what “integrative medicine” […]