Academics at the University of Central Lancashire are fighting a last-ditch battle to stop it offering “science degrees” in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. Here’s the story, courtesy of the Times Higher Education Supplement. Plans to offer new science degrees in acupuncture and Chinese herbal …
It’s August and it’s raining. The holiday’s a disaster and you’re bored. Why not detox? Lesley Thomas of the Daily Telegraph wins this week’s sucker of the week award. She’s normally a bit grumpy, she tells us, but last week she “went running before the …
Hitler was wrong. The Nazi idea of a ‘pure’ Nordic race, new evidence shows, was pure fancy. Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered a 2000 year-old burial site containing the remains of a man “who appears to be of arabian origin”. The evidence …
A quick reminder to opponents of counterknowledge to keep a close eye on the Andrew Wakefield case. Latest development, according to the Press Association yesterday: The doctor at the centre of the MMR vaccine row had limited experience of the medical ethics surrounding paediatrics, a …
The CIA created Facebook and is using it to spy on students. This claim is made by a Facebook group with 776 members worldwide. There are 84 others with similar claims – a combined membership of 7,656. But, says the group’s founder, a US student: …
Does the University of Teesside monitor the rulings of the Advertising Standards Authority? If so, it might be interested in a recent ruling against Health Products for Life (HPFL), a company founded and endorsed by its visiting professor of nutrition, Patrick Holford. HPFL was taken …
Fresh off the heels of promoting counterknowledge themselves, the Daily Telegraph today lambasted celebrities for “promoting fads” (i.e., counterknowledge). Their condemnation followed a report by the charity Sense About Science, who are concerned that “public figures may confuse people with endorsements for products or theories based on poor understanding of …
The BBC recently ran an item about a treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) called Lightwave Stimulation (LWS). Show a SAD sufferer the right colours, and hormones are triggered that promote happiness. Does that sound like bollocks to you? The author of a sceptical blog called …
The New York-based Oxonian Society – founded by Oxford graduates to foster lively debate – is helping to promote Deepak Chopra MD, the New Age guru whose pseudoscience is utterly incompatible with the intellectual traditions of Oxford University. The society has just offered me a …
In 2001, the Journal of Reproductive Medicine published a paper in which researchers at Columbia medical school claimed that long-distance prayer doubled the success of in-vitro fertilisation. Here’s the abstract: Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro Fertilization–Embryo Transfer: Report of a Masked, Randomized Trial Kwang …