And thus it came to pass that Cracked Science was no more. This is not a dead-end; the road, once gravely, makes way for a paved highway. In the summer of 2013, a former graduate student with a craving for bad-science denouncing and public education started a blog. There are over 150 million blogs on … Continue reading
What do you think is the best beauty product out there? The one that science has shown has the greatest impact on your health? The one with tested rejuvenating powers? The one the evidence says, “Buy it, use it, and you will see the difference”? Is it Retin-A? Coconut oil? Kakadu plum? Listen to this … Continue reading
A few months ago, a fellow skeptic told me he was considering personalized genetic testing and wondered what my opinion was on the service. The idea is that any consumer who desires can send a DNA sample to a company, like 23andMe, and get a report back on various genetic risk factors. Sounds like a … Continue reading
Antibodies are used a lot in research labs around the world and scientists tend to trust what’s on the label. But antibodies aren’t as reliable as researchers may think, with some scientists now arguing that “due diligence” in their use should include considerable time and money. I remember comparing my own experimental results to published … Continue reading
Short people are at a higher risk for adverse cardiac events. Tall people are at a higher risk for heart attacks. Short people live longer. Tall people live longer. Which is it? A new study came out (in the much revered New England Journal of Medicine) apparently showing that short people are at an increased risk … Continue reading
My answer: yes. Nature published a very lengthy and well-written piece by Kendall Powell on the postdoctoral fellowship. If you don’t know, the next step for many Ph.D. graduates is not a tenure-track position in a university but a sort of poorly paid specialization called the postdoctoral fellowship, whose funding is often uncertain and whose length … Continue reading
“Evidence-based entertainment” is the motto and mandate of the production team under whose banner this blog exists. It expresses a desire for subversive education in light of growing apathy, for using the tools of entertainment to foster skepticism. The pill is always easier to swallow in a scoop of ice cream. I love stumbling upon … Continue reading
Originally posted on Moutons No More:
Jonathan Jarry hosts another edition of Within Reason, the podcast that looks at contentious issues from a rational perspective. This month, is scientific research inefficient or have we grossly oversimplified the situation? We begin with a mad comedic dash through the life of a young scientist to the sound of…
The only good drug is the one the patient can afford. WNYC radio show and podcast extraordinaire RadioLab most recently did an episode entitled “Worth” in which the show’s hosts and producer investigated the worth of an extra year of human life. They stumbled upon a very interesting story centred on the cost of cancer drugs in … Continue reading
From Nature News: Japanese scientist resigns as ‘STAP’ stem-cell method fails It sounded too good to be true… and it was. Reproducibility is key. You can read the whole story here. Continue reading
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