Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Science

How engaged should scientists be in policy?

I really hate this. I really hate having to take a friend to task, but he leaves me little choice. You see, I actually like Chris Mooney. Back in the day, I even even hoisted a pint with him at the Toledo Lounge in D.C., round about the time of the commencement of the whole […]

Categories
Clinical trials Medicine

Don’t get sick in July? (Revisited)

June is almost over. If you work in an academic medical center, as I do, that can mean only one thing. The new interns are coming, and existing residents will soon be advancing to the next level. The joy! The excitement! The trepidation! And it’s not all just the senior residents and the faculty feeling […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment, part 3

(NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer. Also note that, when it was publicized on the Internet and on the blogosphere that Tinkham’s cancer gave every indication of having recurred and she was dying, her “practitioner” Robert O. Young removed the videos embedded below from YouTube.) Remember […]

Categories
Medicine Science

Oh, no! Bad research is killing science!

Over the last few decades, there has been a veritable explosion in the quantity of scientific journals and published papers. It’s a veritable avalanche. Some of the reason for this is simply the increase in the number of scientific researchers that has occurred over the last few decades. Another reason I’d suggest is that there […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Finding money for biomedical research by getting rid of woo

In the wake of President Obama’s election, there was a great deal of hope that he would take science-based medicine seriously and, as he promised in his inaugural speech, “restore science to its rightful place.” Shortly before Obama’s inauguration, in fact, Steve Salzberg proposed that the Obama administration should defund the National Center for Complementary […]