Ben Goldacre - I think you'll find it a bit more complicated than that

But you won't.

This man is a genius. He takes tricky stuff and explains it with breath-taking clarity so that everybody can understand it.

He pops up every now and then on radio and TV programmes with people like Tim Harford and Brian Cox and has written various newspaper columns but his real job is as a doctor (a proper medical one).

If you read only one book this year make it this one because if you're already into this sort of thing you'll love it to bits, I guarantee it, and if you're not you will be by the time you've read a few of his articles.

You can read the introduction here:

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I cannot recommend this man's work highly enough.

Started to read the intro....but gave up before that damn flashing picture did my head in.....sorry.

No flashing stuff in the book though... Get that!

Is he the guy that debunks pseudo-medicine for the Guardian?

Good man. More power to his elbow.

He does.

He's very keen on rigourous evidence-based decision-making and homeopathy does not fare well in this regard. And neither do politicians.

The amount of poorly assessed information and negligent disregard of what evidence there is, and this happens right across the board not just where you might expect it to, is genuinely shocking.

I urge you to read his book because you'll never look at things the same way again if you do.

I remember reading something he wrote about homeopathy which has stuck with me for ever.  He found a bottle of something claiming to be diluted to such an extent that for one molecule of the original essence to have survived, the water needed would require a container fifty times the size of Earth.

I guess it's harmless guff if it's just being used by slightly gullible adults trying to cure a hangover, but when the same gullible adults try to cure their kids with this rubbish it becomes murderous. It's the thin end of the anti-vaccination wedge, I guess.

You've only got to look at the advertising for the toiletries/cosmetics industry to see how they use "pseudoscience" and clever use of descriptive wording to attempt to confer legitimate scientific back up to their claims. On the list of ingredients they began replacing water with the more exotic-sounding "aqua" years ago.

Goldacre is quite right but he's a voice very much crying in the wilderness: When the expected market for just anti-ageing products alone for 2015 is $114 billion (yes, billion) what's a few basic scientific or linguistic principles bent (or shattered) matter?

Just stumbled across this little gem: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

As an example of the his work it's about as good as it gets. Complicated stuff made easily understandable and things are not always, or even very often, quite as simple as they seem.

Here's another on randomised trials: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This bloke should in charge of something very big and very important.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

He does.

He's very keen on rigourous evidence-based decision-making and homeopathy does not fare well in this regard. And neither do politicians.

The amount of poorly assessed information and negligent disregard of what evidence there is, and this happens right across the board not just where you might expect it to, is genuinely shocking.

I urge you to read his book because you'll never look at things the same way again if you do.

isnt homeopathy the original pharmacology?

id say most medicines are based on natural remedies, however the dilution bit miffs me, what abut the shite that has gone through the water? conveniently forgotton..

Homeopathy.....just a smoke and mirrors trick.

Homeopathy?

Top trolling, fella!

Unless you were serious in which case God help you.

Nothing is better than homeopathy.

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