Bad Science – Ben Goldacre.
Altnation regulars will likely be aware of at least the existence of Goldacres' blog
Bad Science in which pseudoscience and quackery are exposed given the amount of threads Les posts to it. I don't know how many of you follow the links but I hope its a lot.
Well, now he has released a book on the subject. It seems to be a compendium of the “best of bad science” in one way and a guide to spotting pseudoscience in another. In its first guise it is an entertaining, if sometimes troubling, read and lets us all have a chuckle at how GCSE level science is spun out into ridiculous and unverifiable claims. Sometimes it's troubling to realise how gullible other people can be, and at other times it's troubling to realise how gullible you yourself have been. Yet no matter how gullible you or other people appear to have been Goldacre seems to be as far from the scolding science teacher as possible poking fun at honest mistakes and ignorance. Which is refreshing as sometimes other popular science writers can seem a touch 'arrogant' when dealing with those who make unjustifiable claims (Richard Dawkins and religion for one (although by and large even his reputation as a firebrand atheist is significantly exaggerated. Poor bloke just doesn't come across well on the tellybox.)
Far from making you feel stupid or patronised Goldacre, to use an oft overused cliché, “takes you on a journey” from unknowing ignorance to showing us the simple means by which we can evaluate the grandiose claims of snake oil salesmen, detox treatments and penta-peptide based creams.
It’s a journey that takes us through the wild west of bad science, through the badlands of homeopathy and other lawless corners of pseudo science where the likes of shite lady Gillian McKeith reside. Along the way Goldacre introduces’ us to the fascinating world of the placebo effect its worth noting his documentary for radio four on the subject is available on i-tunes. He manages to imbue the science that the quacks are so often want to decry as suppressing the truth with a mystery and wonder all of its own. Mystery and wonder that far outstrips the dull mechanistic explanations of the psueds no matter how much “energy” or “magnetism” they wish to invoke. Along the way he shows us how the media is complicit in enforcing the idea that such nonsense is somehow valid and indeed how laughably poor science coverage and understanding is in the popular press. He explains why clever people come to believe stupid things and how health scares, bad stats and ultimately bad science can fool us all if we aren’t careful.
As such the book is not only an entertaining read but it also doubles as a kind of 'teaching aid' but the kind of teaching that goes hand in hand with being entertained. Imagine being taught something by a teacher who clearly has a love of the subject but rather then appearing elitist about the whole thing actually wants as many people as possible to share their love. It's a bit like listening to or watching the Mark Steele lecturers in that regard I suppose.
Charlie Brooker pops up on the cover to say that Bad Science is “The most important book you'll read this year, and quite possibly the funniest too” he's not wrong.
Bad Science – Ben Goldacre is in bookshops now.
The Bad science blog can be found here:-
http://www.badscience.net/
