badscienceblogs

I enjoyed parts of this evening’s One Show on BBC One. I enjoyed the explanation of the magical thinking (like cures like) and diluting ‘active’ ingredients out of existence that form the basis for homeopathy. I especially enjoyed the Doctor pointing out – in response to Monty Don’s argument that ‘it doesn’t matter how homeopathy [...]

Ben Goldacre recently asked why nobody wrote about this paper on flu vaccines and Guillain–Barré syndrome. I’ll come back to that question later, but first a look at the paper. What they did: At the time of vaccination, vaccinees were instructed to report any adverse event to physicians or vaccination providers. [...] Adverse events that [...]

An email yesterday alerted me to YesToLife. This outfit seemed to me to be so dangerous that a word of warning is in the public interest. Their own description says “YES TO LIFE is a new charitable initiative to open up a positive future for people with cancer in the UK by supporting an integrative* [...]

Last year the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital was rebranded as the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (RLHIM). The exercise seems to have been entirely cosmetic. Sadly, they still practise the same nonsense, as described in Royal London Homeopathic Hospital rebranded. But how different will things be at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine?. [...]

In which Dr Aust ponders slime. And scientific tendencies. Reproduced from the wonderful xkcd.com, the comic strip that regularly captures the spirit and the reality of science Last weekend the Aust entourage, including Junior Aust (aged six-and-a bit-well-nearly-seven-in-a-few-months) visited this event at one of the nearby museums, run by the people from Manchester University’s Life [...]

This is how homeopathy should be reported on by the media. The article opens with criticism of an alternative medicines business for “spruiking homeopathic ‘remedies’ for radiation sickness in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the nuclear disaster in Japan“: The Homeopathy Plus clinic, based on the NSW central coast, said in an email newsletter [...]