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While exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies, the author takes the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window in its quest to sell more copies. He also teaches you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample size, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it.… (more)
nsblumenfeld: Although they write about astronomy rather than medicine, the authors share Goldacre's interest in process and methodology as well as results; they make how we know what we know in the field a primary concern and are interested in giving their readers the tools to avoid pseudoscience and bogus "sciencey" claims.… (more)
vguy: Goes into greater depth on a selected number of issues (eg Homeopathy, MMR vaccine). Helps one understand scientific method, specifically blind controlled randomised trials. For all that, an amusing and popular approach.
The tone is a bit over the top but with good reason, it is a shame that a book like this should even exist because of failure of the press to report on science.
The criticism i would direct to the author is that he almost never goes into numerical details so he does not admit some fundamental problems with scientific truth. Some times results are not black and white, and benefits or damage are acrually complex.
The praise I could not give enough is that he really takes head on so many problems with information, policy, media in health and wellness. For example debunking of anti-oxidants… ( )
Even if you are a staunch adherent of homeopathy or one of other practices the author makes exposé of, the book will still prove useful to you, because it teaches (or reiterates) those priceless methods of logic which are some essential in everyday life.
anyone who had ever tried a "special" diet they found online should read this book. not to change your opinion, just to make sure you have actually thought about it. ( )
Amusing, at times alarming, and above all very informative about the failings of well-meaning alternative medicine nuts, disingenuous charlatans, incompetent science journalists, malevolent pharmaceutical companies, and willfully close-minded politicians.
Anyone with a vague interest in how evidence can be manipulated or misinterpreted, or in the state of public understanding of science as a whole, should pick it up. ( )
The aim of this book is that you should be future-proofed against new variants of bullshit.
My aim here is by no means to suggest that antioxidants are entirely irrelevant to health. If I had a T-shirt slogan for this whole book, it would be: 'I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that'.
Under his [Harry Frankfurt, Princeton University] model, "bullshit" is a form of falsehood distinct from lying: the liar knows and cares about the truth but deliberately sets out to mislead; the truth speaker knows the truth and is trying to give it to us; the bullshitter, meanwhile, does not care about the truth and is simploy trying to impress us.
Last words
You will do it because you know that knowledge is beautiful, and because if only a hundred people share your passion, that is enough.
While exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies, the author takes the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window in its quest to sell more copies. He also teaches you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample size, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it.
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La salute, il timore di perderla, la ricerca di ogni mezzo per conservarla sono ossessioni ricorrenti, coltivate dai canali pubblicitari attraverso un bombardamento quotidiano di consigli, ricette, soluzioni spesso imprecise, talvolta fuorvianti o dannose. Contro la disinformazione interessata, la fiducia ingenua, i rischi dell'ignoranza, questo libro propone un rimedio: la consapevolezza. Ben Goldacre non si limita a svelare menzogne e verità manipolate, ma racconta come sia facile cadere preda di questi inganni e, soprattutto, come sia possibile evitarlo. Di fronte ai pericoli della cattiva scienza, questo libro è il manifesto, divertente, spietato e appassionato, di una scienza buona. (piopas)
The criticism i would direct to the author is that he almost never goes into numerical details so he does not admit some fundamental problems with scientific truth. Some times results are not black and white, and benefits or damage are acrually complex.
The praise I could not give enough is that he really takes head on so many problems with information, policy, media in health and wellness. For example debunking of anti-oxidants…
( )