Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Oct 12, 2010 - Science - 304 pages
53 Reviews

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.

 

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - lycaenidae - LibraryThing

Highly recommend the chapters about Statistics and about HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa -- would rate those chapters a 5. The rest of the book was in need of better editing and less pomposity. Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jetangen4571 - LibraryThing

audiobook, crooks, education, greed, medical, nonfiction, reference, science, social-issues, whispersync, fraud A detailed reminder to verify claims and rationality of products that are aimed at ... Read full review

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Selected pages

Contents

Preface
Matter
Brain
The Progenium XY Complex
Homeopathy 5 The Placebo Effect
The Nonsense du Jour
Nutritionists
The Doctor Will Sue You Now 9 Is Mainstream Medicine Evil?
Why Clever People Believe Stupid Things
Bad Stats 12 The Medias MMR Hoax
And Another Thing
Notes Further Reading and Acknowledgments
Index
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
Ben Goldacre
Limited preview - 2010
Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
Ben Goldacre
No preview available - 2011
Bad Science
Ben Goldacre
No preview available - 2008
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Common terms and phrases

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About the author (2010)

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.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Bad Science
TitleBad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
AuthorBen Goldacre
Editionreprint
PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010
ISBN1429967099, 9781429967099
Length304 pages
Subjects › 

Health & Fitness / Health Care Issues
Science / Essays
Science / Ethics
  
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