Saturday 16 June 2007

Bad Science keeps up the good work

The bad science that I am referring to is the name of the column in the Saturday guardian that sets out to debunk the bad science that is peddled by the charlatans that try and scare people about the dangers of everyday life.

Recent excellent articles have included ones on people selling devices to cancel out electromagnetic rays , the bad science behind the recent Panoram program on wifi and about Gillian Mckeith (the one who is obsessed by poo and has decided to stop calling herself a doctor - perhaps because she isn't qualified).

This weeks one concerns a Professor David Colquhoun who had some very sensible questions about claims made by a Dr Ann Walker for a herbal remedy conisting of red clover. His questions were posted them on his UCL (University College London Blog).

Apparently (and according to the Guardian article) the response were legal threats from Dr Walkers husband to which the university apparently caved in to. The good news was that the blogosphere rallied to the Professors side and deluged the Provost of UCL with letters demanding the reinstatement of his blog.

Even better was the fact that the theories being put about by Dr Walker were discussed in great length and to no great surprise most of them appeared not to believe a word.

The media world needs more people like Ben Goldacre to stop the myth peddlers from scaring people into buying things that they don't need.

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