The Ockhams 2012
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- Alternative Medicine
Don’t believe what you think!
What follows is a slightly modified and abbreviated version of the introduction to Professor Edzard Ernst's recently published book, Don't Believe What...NHS Lincolnshire Reiki-d over the coals for ‘Spiritual Healer’ job ad
Brian Eggo - 0NHS Lincoln's ad for a Spiritual Healer rightly deserved criticism, but do these alternative health charities expose a more worrying gap in our care for cancer patients?Coronavirus, conspiracy, challenges and compassion
Our new editor Michael Marshall talks about the challenge of countering coronavirus misinformation and conspriacy theory, and why compassion is such an important aspect of skepticism.Naturopath Suing Skeptic Blogger Britt Hermes
Award-winning skeptic blogger Britt Hermes - who turned her back on naturopathic 'medicine' - is the subject of a lawsuit by Arizona naturopath Colleen...
- Health
‘Mask Mouth’: A real dental phenomenon, or merely a confection?
Dentist Shaun Sellars looks at recent reports of facemasks causing a new dental phenomenon known as 'mask mouth'.Hydroxychloroquine: When bad science goes mainstream
As covid-19 spreads across Brazil, Natalia Pasternak and Carlos Orsi highlight how one purported miracle cure found friends in very high places.Coronavirus, conspiracy, challenges and compassion
Our new editor Michael Marshall talks about the challenge of countering coronavirus misinformation and conspriacy theory, and why compassion is such an important aspect of skepticism.Covid19 nutrition myths
Registered nutritionist Pixie Turner takes a look at some of the most common covid-19 nutritional myths to arise during the pandemic.
- Paranormal
The Atacama mummy: putting together the pieces of an “Archaeology bombshell”
While the Daily Express recently declared mummified remains found in the Atacama Desert to be an "Archaeology bombshell", Archaeologist Paul Duncan McGarrity offers an alternate explanation.Electrician Sheds Light on Viral Birmingham Ghost Mystery
Hayley Stevens explains how the recent ghost captured on a Birmingham CCTV camera may have a far more mundane explanation.Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft
Deborah Hyde reports from the Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford.Do ghosts exist? If not, why do we see them?
This is the deceptively simple question I ask at the beginning of every episode of the Haunted podcast. The show features ghost stories that...
- Conspiracy
Coronavirus, conspiracy, challenges and compassion
Our new editor Michael Marshall talks about the challenge of countering coronavirus misinformation and conspriacy theory, and why compassion is such an important aspect of skepticism.
- Society
Behind the Bastards, with Robert Evans
Mark Horne - 0This twice-weekly podcast, running since 2018, looks at some of the worst people in history. As you might imagine from the title,...The Ockham Awards 2020: recognising the best in skepticism, and the worst in pseudoscience
Nominations for the 2020 Ockham Awards are now open, with our annual award for Skeptical Activism and our Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience.Don’t believe what you think!
What follows is a slightly modified and abbreviated version of the introduction to Professor Edzard Ernst's recently published book, Don't Believe What...Ethics for Skeptics: why compassion and reason go hand in hand
Philosophy lecturer Aaron Rabinowitz outlines the ethical core of skepticism, and explains why a compassionate understanding of morality must underpin the skeptical worldview.
- Science
(False) Memories of Childhood
On 5 October 2017, I, along with four other memory researchers, read out an essay on memory in front of an audience at the...The Death & Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
On the 29th January, 1951, a woman named Henrietta Lacks called into John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, complaining that she felt a ‘knot’ in...Ipso Factoid: Daily Mail in Mildly Educational Shocker
The Daily Mail recently produced a list of questions commonly asked of parents by their naturally curious children about science and the world around...Ipso Factoid: *insert gratuitous sexual pun here*
In a wonderful opportunity (duly ignored) to prove our maturity as a society, both the Times and Daily Mail had headlines declaring "What an...IPSO FACTOID: Well That’s It Then, Science Is Over
Pack up the Bunsen burners and power down the computers because Science Is Dying! This wonderfully nonsensical claim is thanks to Daniel Henninger of...
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Expert skeptical analysis of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory and claims of the paranormal.
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