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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Reiki for rats?

I’ve gone on record as saying more times than I care to remember that there is no such thing as “alternative” medicine. There is only medicine. Indeed, the only reason any medicine is considered “alternative” is (1) it is on a scientific basis incredibly improbable and/or it comes from a pre-scientific “healing” tradition; (2) its […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Resistance is futile, part 3: Maybe resistance is not futile after all

Well, I won’t back down No, I won’t back down You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won’t back down Gonna stand my ground Won’t be turned around And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down Gonna stand my ground And I won’t back down From I Won’t Back […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

How about a real challenge for science communication?

Three days ago, ScienceBlogs did something it hasn’t done before. ScienceBloggers were given screener DVDs of a new movie by one of our own, Randy Olson of Shifting Baselines. The movie was Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy, and the idea was to get as many of us as possible to review the movie and post […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

EpiWonk reanalyzes the dataset that DeSoto and Hitlan played with

One of the great “myths” of the mercury militia, that movement that insists no matter what the actual scientific evidence shows that it absolutely, positively has to be mercury from vaccines that cause autism is the Myth of the Poor Excretor. In other words, the claim is that autistic children are somehow “poor excretors” of […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A ghoul descends upon the corpse of Tony Snow

I was contemplating how to get back into the swing of things as far as getting the blogging juices flowing again after the unfortunate events of the last few days, given how much my last post drained me. I suppose I could have dived into the infamous PZ versus the cracker incident, but, quite frankly, […]