Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

Ben Goldacre

Oct 2010 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

Have you ever wondered how one day the media can assert that alcohol is bad for us and the next unashamedly run a story touting the benefits of daily alcohol consumption? Or how a drug that is pulled off the market for causing heart attacks ever got approved in the first place? How can average readers, who aren't medical doctors or Ph.D.s in biochemistry, tell what they should be paying attention to and what's, well, just more bullshit?

Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. He has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window. But he's not here just to tell you what's wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample sizes, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You're about to feel a whole lot better.

Ratings and reviews

Dr Goldacre's book does a great job at presenting the issues, big and small, that plague the every day understanding and use of medicine, science, and statistics. He is careful to be as even-handed and fair as he can be about the material, trying to present them as honestly and sympathetically as possible even when he clearly disagrees with them. A book worth reading to be aware of just how easy it is to be misled about medicine and science, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

A Tour de Force by the author, through the world of popular junk thought. The book is insightful, witty, and easy to read. Included is a basic guide to understanding how we can all be easily fooled, and some techniques for avoiding the pitfalls of the "mushy" thinking that allows that to happen.

Ah yes, yet another "expert" who knows less then what he should (as a doctor??) about the body brain system and who writes an article taking lots out of context, does no research beyond what a teacher is trying to simply convey in a children's classroom...(albeit with some older info not described anymore) but worse...has clearly never spoken to one person who really understands Brain Gym and has seen clear lasting ongoing benefits from (any use) of kinesiology.That's OK...there's copious research (and growing) to support this and other sensory integration work, which this is mostly all concerning. And yes, pure clean water is hydrating...coffee is not. This guy is sad, amusing perhaps, but ignorant and therefore "bad science" himself.

About the author

Ben Goldacre is a writer, broadcaster, and doctor best known for the Bad Science column in The Guardian. Trained in Oxford and London, with brief forays into academia, Goldacre works full-time for the National Health Service.