If you read only one book this year...

..make it Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. I think it's one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.

More and more, I despair of scientific literacy in the UK. Every piece of science reporting I see in the media is dumbed down to oblivion. Case in point: have you seen Horizon recently? It's all personalities and whizzy fast editing, in case you lose interest after two minutes. Newspapers are full of clueless reporting by Humanities graduates about scientific 'controversies' that aren't controversies at all. Into this information void then step the self-styled gurus - pseudo-scientists with correspondence course PhDs slandering the genuine experts and peddling bullshit cures.

There has never been more need for a book like Bad Science, which in a witty, well-written and engaging way, explains how Science works, what it is and what it definitely isn't. It shows the reader how to develop a keen bullshit detector, how to separate fact from nonsense. It's the sort of thing I've been interested in, and talking about, for 25 years, but unlike me, Goldacre delivers with verve, scientific expertiseand real intellectual horsepower.

By way of illustrating his points, along the way Goldacre looks at:

The MMR 'scandal'

MRSA and the bloke in a garden shed that the media elevated to 'the UK's leading microbiologist'

Gillian McKeith, crazed litigious quack

Nutritionists in general

Antioxidant nonsense

'Brain Gym', some Grade A baloney taught in thousands of schools

The true complexity of the placebo effect

Homeopathy

Patrick Holford and optimum nutrition

Fish oils and GCSE results

..and so on.

It's a great read and you don't need a scientific background to appreciate any part of it.

In addition there's his site: http://www.badscience.net

In addition there's his site: http://www.badscience.net

Yeah, really the book is the central ideas on the site put into a coherent whole. Required reading along with snopes.com

Couldn't agree more, don't even get me started on homeopathy. Just go and drink some seawater, the ultimate dilution of every possible homeopathic remedy.

Couldn't agree more, don't even get me started on homeopathy. Just go and drink some seawater, the ultimate dilution of every possible homeopathic remedy.

Do you not believe in the healing power of the mind?

Do you not believe in the healing power of the mind?

Well sort of, you can't beat a good placebo. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong, I should believe in some of this rubbish! Although you could just believe that drinking tap water cures all ills and save yourself some money...

I've witnessed the belief in homoeopathy make it work. At university I lived with a lesbian couple (yeah ok, calm down), one was a Homoeopath, the other a hypnotherapist.

The hypno was a great display of mind control as one of their sons got really terrible asthma attacks - life threatening. He learned to control it through regular therapy.

As for the funny little pills they used to dish out, well numerous people used to say they helped. It was just little blobs of sugary stuff as far as I could see.

The book sounds interesting enough but won't it be preaching to the converted? Or would it really be of worth to a total non-scientist, like my missus for instance, who didn't even study any of the sciences at school let alone get a qualification in any of them.

Good stuff.

I have been looking for a good book to read recently.

The book sounds interesting enough but won't it be preaching to the converted? Or would it really be of worth to a total non-scientist, like my missus for instance, who didn't even study any of the sciences at school let alone get a qualification in any of them.

Good question. It's a little hard for me to put myself in the shoes of acomplete non-scientist. It purports to be written for the non-scientist, though, and it's clearly written. My guess is that anyone who is reasonably bright and has a little persistence could get a lot out of it.

I was going to go and see his lecture in Bath but in the end I couldn't be arsed - I regret that now.

Couldn't agree more, don't even get me started on homeopathy. Just go and drink some seawater, the ultimate dilution of every possible homeopathic remedy.

I've been interested in homeopathy for many, many years. Interested from the point of view of how it manages to persist in a world in which 'conventional science' works so demonstrably well.

The odd thing is that there seems little connection between intelligence and belief in pseudoscience stuff. A friend of mine who is pretty bright and accomplished really buys into homeopathy. It's just a question of belief systems and training. She is convinced that there is some quantum-mechanical water-imprinting mechanism going on, which sounds completely preposterous to me.

I think humans are really, really bad at weighing evidence - we start at the conclusions we want and work backwards until we've generated what sounds like a convincing argument to justify them.

I've been interested in homeopathy for many, many years. Interested from the point of view of how it manages to persist in a world in which 'conventional science' works so demonstrably well.

 

The odd thing is that there seems little connection between intelligence and belief in pseudoscience stuff. A friend of mine who is pretty bright and accomplished really buys into homeopathy. It's just a question of belief systems and training. She is convinced that there is some quantum-mechanical water-imprinting mechanism going on, which sounds completely preposterous to me.

 

I think humans are really, really bad at weighing evidence - we start at the conclusions we want and work backwards until we've generated what sounds like a convincing argument to justify them.

In the same way, bright academics can be fooled by street magicians and mentallists ie being "Derren Browned" etc. The higher the IQ, the higher the possibility of 'falling for it' - This last statement is not a scientific fact, just my own uneducated guess

She is convinced that there is some quantum-mechanical water-imprinting mechanism going on, which sounds completely preposterous to me.

As it was described to me, everything in nature has a natural energy. Each plant, herb, ingredient etc and to replicate the effects of it you just replicate this energy. Simple huh?

She had this "machine" with loads of dials on the front and a pot where you put the blank pills. She then dialled the relevant numbers from a book of what she wanted to replicate, pressed a button and hey presto the blanks are now imprinted with her new herb or whatever.

Honestly, you should've seen this machine. It cost a ridiculous amount and looked like it was made in a shed. The components were covered in a tar like substance to prevent anyone "reverse engineering" it, or more like realising it was nothing but a bunch of resisters and capacitors draining batteries.

In the same way, bright academics can be fooled by street magicians and mentallists ie being "Derren Browned" etc. The higher the IQ, the higher the possibility of 'falling for it' - This last statement is not a scientific fact, just my own uneducated guess

I certainly think that a high IQ, and sometimes scientific training, is no guarantee against being fooled. If you haven't come across it already, look up 'Project Alpha' and James Randi. Randi managed to plant two magician proteges in a paranormal research lab funded by McDonnell Douglas. The scientists never had a chance - they just weren't used to the subterfuge and misdirection of magicians - who strung them along for some time with their 'psychic powers'.

Double post

As it was described to me, everything in nature has a natural energy. Each plant, herb, ingredient etc and to replicate the effects of it you just replicate this energy. Simple huh?

She had this "machine" with loads of dials on the front and a pot where you put the blank pills. She then dialled the relevant numbers from a book of what she wanted to replicate, pressed a button and hey presto the blanks are now imprinted with her new herb or whatever.

For me, 'energy' is the magic bullshit word. The second I hear someone talk about 'energy' and not meaning potential, kinetic, heat, electrical etc I just know it's going to be all downhill from there. All purpose quasi-mystical word for the confused.

Honestly, you should've seen this machine. It cost a ridiculous amount and looked like it was made in a shed. The components were covered in a tar like substance to prevent anyone "reverse engineering" it, or more like realising it was nothing but a bunch of resisters and capacitors draining batteries.

I would love to have seen that. There is a long history of nonsensical machines. The classical way of demonstrating that they don't work is to secretly remove a supposedly 'vital' component (the Blondlot test).

The sci-fi author and editor John W. Campbell never stopped looking for reality defying machines. He built a series of 'Hieronymous machines' which supposedly detected radiation from minerals. In my copy of John Sladek's The New Apocrypha (also a great book, if a bit dated now), it say that Campbell was unperturbed by the fact that the machine worked just as well when he replaced the circuits with an ink drawing of the circuits! He claimed it worked by a 'relationship in itself' , whatever the f**k that means.

I'm just over half way through this book now and I wish I had the time to get through it quicker, but I am reading slowly so I make sure I understand it all properly. It's well written and entertaining, and I am impressed by Goldacre's diligence and clarity.

It's hard to criticise what he has written, and for all his efforts it seems like little will change. People will still buy into what they're told down the pub or what they read in the papers, and there will always be those who want propagate misinformation to take advantage of others. Many people don't care about so many things, not just their health, and they don't have the time nor the means to investigate everything for themselves, especially when there is no definitive answer to be had.

We're only human, not intelligent well-educated people like him - no wonder we think vitamin C will prevent a cold, or omega 3 will make our kids brainy.*

*for those of you who didn't know, both of these statements are UNTRUE.

*for those of you who didn't know, both of these statements are UNTRUE.

*for those of you who didn't know, both of these statements are UNTRUE.

Thanks for the spolier warning!

Glad this thread has been bumped, been meaning to say thanks for the recommendation. I bought this a few weeks ago and it's superb, really makes you look on everything from media stories to TV adverts to making decisions at work in a different light.

Thanks for the spolier warning!

The book - and this thread - is old enough for you to have read it by now.

Here is another one for you: eating carrots won't help you see in the dark

This book sounds interesting, will check it out. I'm sceptical as one book comes along that apparantly challenges our understanding of many preconceived notions and ideas who is to say this book is right? What if someone writes a book that disproves this book do we jump ship again?

I admit I lack faith, I believe little that I can't prove or touch with my finger.

I'm sceptical as one book comes along that apparantly challenges our understanding of many preconceived notions and ideas who is to say this book is right?

One of the good things about this book is that it doesn't try to cram an idea or opinion down your throat, but explains to you how 'good science' is conducted, then presents the science behind these modern 'facts', and leaves you to your own conclusions about whether to believe them or not.

There's very little in the way of opinion in it, which makes it all the more powerful really.

Ian and Gerald - glad that you enjoyed/are enjoying it.

For Tannhauser - I was wondering if you've seen Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" TV series?

They like to challenge various views using their wealth of experience as performers/magicians, a variety of alternative science/paranormal/belief systems held by the public.

Here's their Bottled Water episode.

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