Society

When skepticism collides with human experience. The societal implications of scientific skepticism.

Psychology

The myth of the well-filled slate: we shouldn’t discount the influence of society on our lives

Carlos Orsi - 27th March 2023

Twenty years after Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate", we should be wary of those who make claims about innate traits that separate nature from nurture

Crime

Fictional impressions: the shaky foundations of many common forensic science techniques

Dave Hahn - 23rd March 2023

TV crime shows have made us all very aware of forensic analysis of hair, DNA samples and fingerprints - but do we overstate its usefulness?

Conspiracy Theories

Hugo Talks – a lot: the prominent conspiracy theorist channel that recently found religion

Mark Horne - 13th March 2023

Popular conspiracy channel Hugo Talks has taken a hard pivot into Christianity, but the supposed 'one-world religion' isn't about to be imposed by the UN any time soon

Conspiracy Theories

15 minute cities: the latest big bad of the conspiracy theory ecosystem

Michael Marshall - 10th March 2023

Why did 15 minute cities go from a niche town planning proposal to a full-blown paranoia? Because existing conspiracist networks needed their next big fear

Alternative Medicine

The Nuremberg salt test: how homeopathy failed one of the earliest ever scientific trials

Sean Slater - 9th March 2023

One of the earliest ever randomised control trials took place in 1835, when skeptical physicians put the new-fangled homeopathy to the test

Crime

The online circus around Nicola Bulley’s death shows what harm armchair detectives can do

Karin McClure - 8th March 2023

The disappearance of Nicola Bulley saw armchair detectives, primed by a love of true crime and an over-abundance of confidence, flood the internet with uninformed and harmful speculation

Health