Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

What is “ethnoscience”?

While I am on vacation, I’m reprinting a number of “Classic Insolence” posts to keep the blog active while I’m gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I’m guessing that quite a few of my […]

Categories
Bioethics Medicine Religion

Separating doctoring from doctrine

You may recall how I’ve criticized the infiltration of woo into medical school and medical education in general. Such an infiltration threatens the scientific basis behind the hard-won success of so much of modern medicine over the last century. Unfortunately, woo isn’t the only threat to scientific medicine. Now, there is a growing movement that […]

Categories
Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science

Pros and cons of chelation for lead exposure

Here’s an interesting little tidbit of a study: Newswise — Lead chelation therapy — a chemical treatment to remove lead from the body — can significantly reduce learning and behavioral problems that result from lead exposure, a Cornell study of young rats finds. However, in a further finding that has implications for the treatment of […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine

Your Friday Dose of Woo: I need this like I need a hole in the head

This week sucked. OK, it was the last two or three days that sucked, but they were bad enough to ruin the whole week. The only reason my blogging didn’t reflect this is because most of the posts over the last couple of days were actually written earlier this week, and the true magnitude of […]

Categories
History Religion

Pythons were the oldest gods?

Given the interest in questions of religion, faith, and atheism among so many of my fellow ScienceBloggers, I’m a bit surprised that none of them picked up on this interesting tidbit of a story: Pythons were probably the first idols to be worshipped by man, archaeologists said after unearthing evidence of a ritual dating back […]