Abortion and Mental Health – Why Choice Really Matters.

Having read the Christian Medical Fellowship desperate attempt to put their own spin on the outcome of the NCCMH’s newly published systematic review of the mental health impact of induced abortion I’ve come to the conclusion that the organisation is in dire need of a change of name. […]

Of Psi and Skeptrinos

Over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Tom Bartlett offers up a rather interesting tale of the travails of two psychologists and a replication study: Back in January, a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology appeared to prove that ESP is real, that in […]

Democracy, LGBT Rights and Religion

Thaddeus J Wilson poses an interesting problem: But having said that, I was, quite frankly, astounded by the things I read here: “Homosexuals can forget about human rights” – James Nsaba Buturo, former Minister of Ethics and Integrity (!) “I will never initiate or support any attempts to […]

Burzynski – Just One More Thing…

The Observer has deigned to respond to the concerns raised over the last couple of weeks in relation to the rather uncritical coverage it afforded the controversial Burzynski Clinic and, to be perfectly honest, there is very little I can say by way of a response to the […]

Burzynski – The Press Release

So, the Burzynski clinic has finally issued an offical response to the ongoing shenanigans with Rhys Morgan and Andy Lewis; a press release in which it disassociates itself from the action of Marc Stephens before making further noises about the possibility of legal action: Marc Stephens was recently […]

Texas Medical Board vs Burzynski

In my last post on the subject of the Burzynski clinic, I noted that the Texas Medical Board has instituted proceedings against Stanslaw Burzynski which could lead to the revocation of his medical licence. What wasn’t entirely clear, at the time I published that post, was the the […]

Beware the Cancer Quack – updated

Before getting to the meat of this post, I want to kick things off with some eminently sensible pictorial advice Believe it or not, this particular poster, by Max Plattner, dates to the period from 1936 to 1938 and yet, as the events of this week have shown, […]

Sophie says “Pull yourself together, woman, its only a baby!”

Speaking as something of a science geek, one of the more pleasing developments in the ongoing Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press occured on the very first day of proceeding when, in setting out the parameters of the inquiry, Robert Jay QC announced […]

Statistics for Dummies (Brendan O’Neill edition)

It seems that one of the Telegraph’s resident professional contrarians (aka trolls) – Brendan O’Neill – is just a little bit ticked off with claims that one in four people do/suffer/experience X… The one-in-four fallacy is 100 per cent annoying To mark Anti-Bullying Week, the Anti-Bullying Alliance has […]

Prostate Cancer and The Pill

Today’s grossly overhyped health scare story comes courtesy of the BMJ’s Open Access journal and, in its original form, sports the following title: “Oral contraceptive use is associated with prostate cancer: an ecological study“. Needless to say, by the time this paper filtered through into the mainstream press […]