Identifying science denialism and pseudoscience
Science denialism, a form of pseudoscience, is everywhere these days. There’s the oft-discussed vaccination denialists who refuse to vaccinate children because they believe that vaccines cause some...
View ArticleNaturopathy and diabetes–pure pseudoscience
Let’s be blunt. Naturopathy is pure, unmitigated, undiluted junk medicine (or what many call “woo”). What is naturopathy? It is a form of alternative medicine based on a belief in vitalism, which...
View ArticleWeight loss remedies that are just plain pseudoscience
Here comes weight-loss pseudoscience appearing in spam, the Dr. Oz show, or random google search. Weight loss scams, especially those that easy, are an American obsession, since the country is...
View ArticleEchinacea and the common cold–Myth vs. Science
It’s getting close to winter once again, so people always recommend their various lotions and potions to either prevent the common cold or, at least, to reduce the course of the disease. Alternative...
View ArticleJudging the quality of science sources
Recently, I wrote articles on skepticism and debunking pseudoscience, both of which require large amounts of evidence. And of course, a true scientific skeptic needs to judge the quality of evidence,...
View ArticleWhat does science say about GMO’s–they’re safe
The science deniers of the world, whether they deny evolution, global warming, vaccines, or GMO safety, spend their time inventing pseudoscience to support their beliefs and claims. As I wrote a few...
View ArticleProliferation of fake peer-review journals
Scientific skepticism is the noble pursuit and accumulation of evidence, based on the scientific method, which is used to question and doubt claims and assertions. A scientific skeptic will hold the...
View ArticleDeveloping and supporting a scientific consensus
In the hierarchy of scientific principles, we often mention scientific theories which “are large bodies of work that are a culmination or a composite of the products of many contributors over time and...
View ArticleHow to evaluate the quality of scientific research
One of the most tiresome discussions that a scientific skeptic has when debunking and refuting pseudoscience or junk science (slightly different variations of the same theme) is what constitutes real...
View ArticleGreen coffee beans and weight loss–another dumb myth
If you’re a fan of the Dr. Oz show, you might have heard about his passionate support of green coffee beans, which are just unroasted coffee beans instead of the roasted ones we enjoy in a big mug, for...
View ArticleStudy concludes that homeopathy cures tonsillitis–probably not
Here we go again. “Researchers” trying to show that a pseudoscientific concept is real medicine, but failing so badly that only true believers would qualify it as real “evidence.” In this case,...
View ArticlePeer review failure – scientific papers retracted
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. As many of the regular readers of this website know, I put a lot of value in the quality of evidence for a scientific or medical...
View ArticleNaturopathy and diabetes–pure pseudoscience
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. Let’s be blunt. Naturopathy is pure, unmitigated, undiluted junk medicine (or what many call “woo”). What is naturopathy? It is a...
View ArticleEvaluating scientific research quality for better skeptical analysis
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. One of the most tiresome discussions that a scientific skeptic has when debunking and refuting pseudoscience or junk science...
View ArticleThe hierarchy of scientific evidence – keys to skepticism
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. I am a scientific skeptic. It means that I pursue published scientific evidence to support or refute a scientific or medical...
View ArticleGardasil causes behavioral issues – more myth debunking
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. Note: this article has an important update based on new information from the journal, Vaccine. I could have a full-time job just...
View ArticleFlu vaccine study does not show it causes 5.5X more respiratory infections
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. The ignorance of the anti-vaccine cult is so annoying, because I have to spend valuable time trying to clear up their myths, tropes,...
View ArticleAnother anti-vaccine article – bad journal, bad data
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. Here we go again. An anti-vaccine article was published in a journal, and now every vaccine denier will use it as absolute “proof”...
View ArticleAnti-vaccine paper retracted again – like a zombie, it keeps coming back
The Skeptical Raptor, stalking pseudoscience in the internet jungle. Late last year, I spent a couple of thousand words critiquing an awful anti-vaccine paper that attempted to claim that vaccinated...
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