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Bad science : quacks, hacks, and big pharma flacks / Ben Goldacre.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Faber and Faber, 2010.Edition: 1st American edDescription: xii, 288 p. : ill. ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 0865479186 (pbk. : alk. paper)
  • 9780865479180 (pbk. : alk. paper) :
Subject(s):
Contents:
Matter -- Brain gym -- The Progenium XY complex -- Homeopathy -- The Placebo Effect -- The nonsense du jour -- Nutritionists -- The doctor will sue you now -- Is mainstream medicine evil? -- Why clever people believe stupid things -- Bad stats -- The media's MMR hoax -- And another thing.
Summary: While exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies, the author takes the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window in its quest to sell more copies. He also teaches you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample size, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 500 G618 Available 33111006037366
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 500 G618 Available 33111006293159
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Originally published, in different form: London : Fourth Estate, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [259-273) and index.

Matter -- Brain gym -- The Progenium XY complex -- Homeopathy -- The Placebo Effect -- The nonsense du jour -- Nutritionists -- The doctor will sue you now -- Is mainstream medicine evil? -- Why clever people believe stupid things -- Bad stats -- The media's MMR hoax -- And another thing.

While exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies, the author takes the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window in its quest to sell more copies. He also teaches you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample size, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it.

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