This morning’s NZ Herald carried an item on a study into immigrant doctors in NZ practising non-western medicine: how they perceived themselves & their role in patient health, & how their patients saw them. It certainly caught my attention – so much so that I found the original paper on line & looked at that […]
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‘the demon-haunted world’
Another in the occasional series of ‘what I’m reading’ (actually, there are 3 books on the go at the moment but I’ve only just started the second & I’m still trying to decide whether or not I like the third). This one is The demon-haunted world by the late, great Carl Sagan.
Continue readingmissing fingers & pixie dust
There was an article in the Herald last week (I think) which set my pseudoscience detector ringing… it had a title something like "Pixie dust helps man regrow finger". The article itself gushed on about how this guy had lost part of his finger to a bit of sharp-edged machinery, but the missing bit – […]
Continue readingback to the oxygen pseudoscience
Time, I think, to return to that pseudoscience on oxygen that I introduced to you a while ago. Have you worked out what it was promoting?
Continue readingfish oil & exam results
Last year I put up a couple of posts to do with suggestions that taking fish-oil capsules would enhance exam performance. You might be interested in this latest comment from Ben Goldacre on the issue, following the Durham 'trial' of fish-oil supplements in the UK.
Continue reading(pseudo)science runs amok
Those of you who've come to one of my Scholarship preparation days may have noticed that I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about pseudoscience. It really annoys me when I see science being mis-used to sell a product or promote a particular point of view. A good friend of mine has […]
Continue readingweird & wacky… science?
Now that things are (sort of) winding down for the year, I thought I'd share some gems of pseudoscience with you. This is an ongoing interest of mine & I'm hoping that you'll apply your critical filters to what follows (& I'd be interested in your comments, too!)
Continue readingFood for thought?
We hear a lot, these days, about eating healthy foods (& not too much of anything!). If you read the ads, and sometimes news items, you'll find some particular foods promoted as being particularly good for you. One of these is fish oil, rich in omega-3 oils and supposedly good for brain development, among other […]
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