07.22Arnie’s World #1
July 1997 by Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella, MD Ed and Lorraine Warren have been investigating hauntings for over 40 years and claim to have mountains of proof for the existence of ghosts. We sought to examine their evidence to see if it stands up to the scientific rigor they claim to endorse. Ed and […]
October 2002 by Steven Novella, MD Over a century ago Charles Darwin convinced the scientific community of the fact that life on Earth is the product of organic evolution and that natural selection is the primary mechanism of evolution. Since that time scientists have been almost completely united in their support of evolutionary theory, which […]
September 1999 by Robert Novella When I was in High School we had school meetings every Friday during which we would discuss current events, see movies, listen to speakers etc. One morning we listened to an accomplished disabled man who started his speech by describing how science has proven that bumblebees cannot fly. He continued […]
October 2000 by Robert Novella Of all the scientific terms that have been usurped by pseudoscientists, the word “energy” would have to be the most abused. This word has a very specific meaning to physicists, but the lay press, and many people who are not familiar with its proper usage, distort its meaning and use […]
January 1999 by Steven Novella, MD The average person uses only 10-12% of their brain. Almost everyone has heard this statement of fact in one context or another, and most people, in accordance with human nature, accept this as just another amazing but true pronouncement of science without too much scrutiny. References to this “fact” […]
January 1999 by Steven Novella, MD I have long been fascinated by creationism, for it is the purest and most developed pseudoscience in our culture. The scientific community, after more than a century of mounting evidence and vigorous debate, remain solid in their collective conviction that life on Earth did in fact result from the […]
January 2001 by Stuart Losen, PhD It was only a few years ago that the public heard a lot about psychotherapists dredging up the previously repressed memories of their clients to ward off the development of multiple personalities. There were also many reports of special therapeutic procedures specifically devised to help individuals cope with those […]
July 1998 by Merriol Almond If it’s important to us to be skeptics, it’s probably also important to those of us who are parents to rear skeptical kids. Looking back, I was brought up by my parents to be skeptical, and my husband and I tried to bring up our children along similar lines. It […]