skepticism


Lies, Damned Lies, and Tissue Culture

I originally wrote this in Feb 2008, and later updated it for the old Lay Science. While making sure that this website was up-to-date, it occurred to me that this post would have disappeared with the rest of the Lay Science site. I have forgotten what updates I made when […]


Lay Science: Suspending Disbelief

I was listening to an old episode of the SETI institute’s podcast Are We Alone, in which they talked to a CSICOP (or whatever it is they call themselves these days) investigator. He described how he approached claims of the paranormal: he was neutral, and he “suspended disbelief” while he […]


Lay Science: On Gillian McKeith

After renewed fighting between Bad Science’s Ben Goldacre and make-believe scientist Gillian McKeith, the skeptical blogosphere has been taking a look at itself and wondering whether it’s being a bit too mean, and putting people off.  My contribution at Lay Science says ‘no’: there is value in making fun of […]


Lay Science: Further research is necessary

The paper that initiated the great MMR hoax has been thoroughly discredited and retracted by the journal that published it, but the anti-vaxxers still claim — and hoodwink some parents — that more research is required to establish whether or not vaccines cause autism. I thought therefore that it was […]


Lay Science: Lies, damned lies, and tissue culture

Skepticism is about critical thinking and knowing how to avoid being fooled by charlatans and the honest but mistaken.  Over at Lay Science I explain one way that you can get fooled: by people citing the activities of cells in a dish as scientific proof for anything and everything.  Read […]


Cotch: Tough on crime in fantasy land

The first post on the new photography-oriented cotch dot net is up.  It’s a quick review of the police stop-and-search policy, in place across London as a counter-terrorism measure, and in particular the decision to consider photography to be a suspicious activity worth stopping.  Of course, it takes the skeptical […]


In which Johnny Ball demonstrates why we can be confident that AGW is happening

This is an archive repost, originally posted on the old blog shortly after Johnny Ball had made his first appearance at Nine Lessons And Carols For Godless People. Skepticism — the movement and the everyday scientific method — is about vetting the new ideas that want to take up residence […]