Pseudoscience

Much of the idiocy on the web is supported by an appeal to misguided or weird science. The sites listed here provide an antidote to the pseudoscience and junk science that threatens to deceive us and rot our brains on a daily basis. (A list of sites based on faulty science can be found at The Millenium Project.)

Articles and other comments in The Millenium Project relevant to pseudoscience.

• A brief history of some science
• A close run thing at the chemist
• A conspiracy of conspiracists
• A Placebo Can relieve A Skeptic's Pain
• A very profitable trick
• Anatomy of a quack
• Are all placebos equal?
• Argumentum ad whateverum
• Better get a lawyer son
• Beware! Are invisible rays frying your brain?
• Blackmore's and the Pharmacy Guild – a marriage made in Hell
• Book review – Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction
• Burzynski gets audited
• But is it science?
• CAM or SCAM?
• Checking the facts (AS)
• Checking the facts (Y)
• Coincidences
• Communicating science and skepticism
• Confirmation bias, denialism and Morton's Demon (AS)
• Confirmation bias, denialism and Morton's Demon. (DR)
• Counting the Opinions
• Craig and Krauss – religion meets science
• Darwin visits the Blue Mountains
• Debating the undebatable
• Denialists ignore the science
• Do Be a Dick
• Don't let straw men give you hay fever.
• Don't wave goodbye just yet.
• Experimenting on skeptics
• Faith, Fact and Fiction : The demarcation of science and non-science
• Fides et Ratio – Faith and reason
• Filtering science through conspiracy
• Get together and do it again.
• Getting risk wrong (AS)
• Getting risk wrong (I)
• Getting yourself hated
• Give me my word back.
• Go! Learn things.
• Have you heard the one about ... ?
• History lesson for smart kids
• Homeopathy – so diluted there's no evidence left.
• How many unicorns does it take to match a draught horse's weight?
• How time flies.
• How to attack freedom of speech.
• I try not to know what just ain't so
• I'm a celebrity. What do you want to hear?
• Irregular regulation
• Is philosophy dead?
• It can't hurt you. It's natural.
• It's all happening. And it's all connected
• James Randi: An Honest Liar
• Just the facts, ma'am.
• Keep the eyes on the Prize.
• Keeping your skepticism out of court (AS)
• Knowing things that just ain't so
• Lying with the truth
• Magic wands (AS)
• Magic wands (Y)
• Milks ain't milk
• Misremembering the past
• Mobile phones are frying our brains.
• Multiple Chemical Stupidity?
• My patience is tried
• Nocebo – whatever doesn't kill you might.
• Obituary – Stephen Jay Gould
• One, two, three. What are we counting for?
• Organic food. What's in it for me?
• Pasteur's Last Words
• Peer review – Close enough is better than nothing.
• Philosophical skepticism and what skeptics really do
• Philosophy and Science
• Philosophy Versus Science, And Vice Versa
• Professor Boyd Haley
• Progress? We don't need no stinking progress.
• Prove all things
• Psychic parasites
• Psychic predictions for 2011
• "Psychic" Predictions for 2010
• Psychics predict the future. Do they?
• Psychological testing
• Publication in the peer-reviewed literature
• Right to read denied by deniers
• School Daze
• Science as she is spoke
• Skeptical Field Trips
• Skeptics aren't always skeptical.
• Smart people. Strange ideas.
• Someone gets upset
• Stem promises give way to abuses
• Still Deluded After All These Years
• Sweet simple things of life
• That dreadful carbon tax
• The 90th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle
• The AVN circles the drain
• The Bear's Progress – SkeptoBear's 2004 World Tour
• The Bermuda Triangle
• The Best Research Money Can Buy
• The Bloated Truth About Gluten
• The Danger of Knowing for Sure
• The end is nigh! Repent!
• The end of the world. Really?
• The end of the world. Really? (ABC)
• The Magical Mystery Museum
• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
• The Myth of "The Myth of Mental Illness" (AS)
• The Power of Coincidence
• The Precautionary Principle
• The science goes round and round, and it comes out here
• The times they are a changin'
• The Woo Review
• The WooWoo Credo
• Things change. Get used to it.
• True Believers
• Understand the numbers? Don't count on it.
• Universities. What are they for?
• We live in fearful times.
• We're still here.
• What is a PhD worth?
• What science isn't.
• What's that up in the sky? Is it a ...?
• Where were you 40 years ago?
• Why am I a skeptic?
• Will your smart meter make you less smart?
• Words have meanings.

Some articles by other people.

• An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish – Bertrand Russell
• Dumb and dumber at the ABC – Ken McLeod
• Dumb, dumber and really dumb at the ABC – Ken McLeod
• Homo Neanderthalensis – H.L. Mencken
• I can smell onions! – Ken McLeod
• Of Reason and Science – Thomas Hobbes
• On Astrologers – Bertrand Russell
• On the Value of Scepticism – Bertrand Russell
• Path to the truth is littered with useful failures – Umberto Eco
• Postmodernism Disrobed – Richard Dawkins
• Stupid Skeptic Tricks – D. Owens
• The Grand Academy of Lagado – Jonathon Swift
• The Liver Cleansing Diet – Dr Joe Proietto
• What is a kook? – Michael Davis
• What Is the Soul? – Bertrand Russell

An essay I wrote about skepticism, following the events of September 11, 2001

• The Danger of Knowing for Sure

books about real science.

• 200% Of Nothing : An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy by A. K. Dewdney
• The Age of Wonder : How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
• Astrology : True or False? - A Scientific Evaluation by Roger B. Culver and Philip A. Ianna
• Astrology : What's Really in the Stars? by J.V. Stewart
• Astrology Disproved by Lawrence E. Jerome
• Bad Astronomy : Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing 'Hoax' by Phil Plait
• Bad Medicine : Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O by Christopher Wanjek
• Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
• The Bear's Progress: SkeptoBear's World Tour 2004 by Peter Bowditch
• The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize by Peter Doherty
• The Best Australian Science Writing 2011 by Stephen Pincock (ed.)
• Big Bang by Simon Singh
• Bizarre Beliefs by Simon Hoggart and Mike Hutchinson
• The Blind Watchmaker : Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins
• The Borderlands of Science : Where Sense Meets Nonsense by Michael Shermer
• Bullshit and Philosophy by Gary L. Hardcastle and George A. Reisch (Editors)
• Bullshit! Season 1 DVD by Penn & Teller
• Bullshit! Season 2 DVD by Penn & Teller
• Bullshit! Season 3 DVD by Penn & Teller
• Bullshit! Season 4 DVD by Penn & Teller
• Bully for Brontosaurus : Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
• Chemical Sensitivity : The Truth About Environmental Illness by Stephen Barrett and Ronald E. Gots
• Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins
• Cosmos Boxed Set (Collector's Edition) DVD by Carl Sagan
• Cosmos Magazine
• Cosmos by Carl Sagan
• Deception & Self-Deception : Investigating Psychics by Richard Wiseman
• The Demon-Haunted World : Science As a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
• Denying AIDS by Seth Kalichman
• Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience by Martin Gardner
• The Dose Makes the Poison : A Plain-Language Guide to Toxicology by Alice Ottoboni
• An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural by James Randi
• The Extended Phenotype : The Long Reach of the Gene by Richard Dawkins
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay
• Fear of Food : Environmentalist Scams, Media Mendacity, and the Law of Disparagement by Andrea Arnold
• The Flamingo's Smile : Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
• The Flight from Science and Reason by Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt and Martin W. Lewis
• Flim Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi
• Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries : Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology by Kenneth L. Feder
• Goddess Unmasked : The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality by Philip G. Davis
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift
• Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
• Higher Superstition : The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt
• How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen
• How Not to Test a Psychic: Ten Years of Remarkable Experiments With Renowned Clairvoyant Pavel Stepanek by Martin Gardner
• How to Think about Weird Things : Critical Thinking for a New Age by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn
• How We Believe : The Search for God in an Age of Science by Michael Shermer
• Humbug! by Jef and Theo Clark
• In Pursuit of Satan : The Police and the Occult by Robert D. Hicks
• Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
• Investigating the Unexplained by Melvin Harris
• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
• The Little Black Book Of Scams by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
• Making Monsters : False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters
• The Mask of Nostradamus : The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer by James Randi
• The Matryoshka Doll by Eugenia Miroshnikoff
• Memory Distortion : How Minds, Brains, and Societies Reconstruct the Past by Daniel L. Schacter (Editor)
• The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould
• A Modest Proposal and Other Satires by Jonathan Swift
• The Myth of Repressed Memory : False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham
• National Science Education Standards
• The New Age : Notes of a Fringe-Watcher by Martin Gardner
• Objections to Astrology by Bart J. Bok and Lawrence E. Jerome
• On the Wild Side by Martin Gardner
• The Panda's Thumb : More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
• A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism by Milton A. Rothman
• Pseudodoxia Epidemica : Or, Enquiries into Very Many Received Tenentes, and Commonly Presumed Truths by Thomas Browne
• Remembering Satan by Lawrence Wright
• River Out of Eden : A Darwinian View of Life by Richard Dawkins
• Science : Good, Bad and Bogus by Martin Gardner
• Science Made Stupid by Tom Weller
• Science Versus Religion by Tad S. Clements
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
• Skeptics and True Believers by Chet Raymo
• The Skeptic's Dictionary : A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions by Robert T. Carroll
• The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal by Lynne Kelly
• Smoke and Mirrors : The Devastating Effect of False Sexual Abuse Claims by Terence W. Campbell
• The Sorcerer of Kings : The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes by Gordon Stein and James Randi
• The Story of Evolution by Joseph McCabe
• The Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay Gould
• Superstition : Belief in the Age of Science by Robert Park
• The Theory of Evolution by John Maynard Smith
• Things I Think About - Volume 1 by Peter Bowditch
• Things I Think About - Volume 2 by Peter Bowditch
• The Trouble with Science by Robin Dunbar
• Truth About Uri Geller by James Randi
• A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss
• Unweaving the Rainbow : Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins
• The Varieties of Scientific Experience : A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
• Victims of Memory : Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives by Mark Pendergrast and Melody Gavigan
• Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert Park
• Weird Water & Fuzzy Logic by Martin Gardner
• Why People Believe Weird Things : Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer
• Why We Do It : Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene by Niles Eldredge
• Wonderful Life : The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould

Books with reviews:

• Agnotology: The making and unmaking of ignorance by Robert N Proctor & Londsa Schiebinger (Eds)
• The Cancer Cure That Worked! by Barry Lynes
• Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
• Has Science Found God? The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe by Victor Stenger
• Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction by Charles Wynn and Arthur Wiggins
• Science and Religion : Are They Compatible? by Paul Kurtz, Barry Karr and Ranjit Sandhu (Editors)
• Seven Brief Lessons On Physics by Carlo Rovelli
• Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia by Jöelle Gergis

Books relating to other categories can be found here.

There are sites listed in this category.

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All Elementary Mathematics – Online Mathematical School

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

Sometimes you meet people who need one of these to keep the conspiracy rays out. Here are the instructions.

American Council on Science and Health

Founded in 1978, and directed and advised by the world's leading scientists, physicians, and policy advisors – ACSH is a non-profit, consumer education organization dedicated to providing the public with mainstream scientific information on issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health.

Americans for Medical Progress

"Americans for Medical Progress is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect society's investment in research. To that end, we promote public understanding of and support for the appropriate role of animals in biomedical research so that scientists are able to continue their quest for cures and improved methods of treatment for illness, injury and disease".

Answers in Science

"devoted to evolution & the science supporting it"

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (NASA)

Fools say that nobody has been to the moon. Read the truth here.

Are you a quack?

The Aspartame Home Page

This site has been developed to provide comprehensive information about Aspartame and serve as a reference for sound, scientific data.

Australasian Science magazine (Peter Bowditch)

109 articles I wrote over 16 years for Australasian Science magazine.

"Australasian Science" magazine

Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

Australian Clinical Trials

"Clinical trials are the future of our health care. New interventions for all diseases – including cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and asthma – have been developed through clinical research. Clinical trials are helping to develop new interventions that will help people live longer and have less pain or disability"

The Australian False Memory Association

"The Australian False Memory Association abhors child abuse. It is concerned about the serious individual and social effects of Recovered Memories. This includes the impact on the accusers, those who recover false memories of child abuse, and individuals and families devastated by false accusation. All are victims of memory".

Australian Skeptics

Australian Skeptics Blog at Yahoo!7 (Peter Bowditch)

38 articles I wrote for Yahoo!7.

Bad Astronomy (Phil Plait)

Bad Psychics

Bad Science (ABF) (Alistair B. Fraser)

Bad Science (BG) (Ben Goldacre)

Blue Mountains Critical Thinking Group

Join my friends and I as we try to introduce some good thinking into one of the most woowoo infested regions in Australia.

Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

Carl Sagan's classic essay on the identification of nonsense.

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine

CHEM4KIDS

"If you are looking for basic chemistry information, stay on this site. It's not just for kids, it's for everyone. We have information on matter, atoms, elements, the periodic table, reactions, and biochemistry"

Clavius Moon Base – debunking the moon hoax

Climate Change Denial (George Marshall)

"This blog explores the topic of the psychology of climate change denial – with observations and anecdotes about our weird and disturbed response to the problem. It seeks to answer a question that has puzzled me for years: why, when the evidence is so strong, and so many agree that this is our greatest problem, are we doing so little about climate change?"

Climate Outreach and Information Network

"Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) is a charity formed in 2004 to directly engage the public about climate change".

The complete work of Charles Darwin

This site currently contains more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images of both publications and handwritten manuscripts. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from secondary reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, published descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important related works for understanding Darwin's context.

Darwin Manuscripts Project

Debunking Thought Field Therapy (Brandon Gaudiano)

Denialism Blog (Mark Hoofnagle)

"Here we will discuss the problem of denialists, their standard arguing techniques, how to identify denialists and/or cranks, and discuss topics of general interest such as skepticism, medicine, law and science"

Diffusion Radio

"If you like a good, broad mix of Science – new science, hard science, pop science, historical science and very silly science, listen to Diffusion"

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (Tom Way)

A beautiful spoof demonstrating the nonsensical nature of most of the anti-chemical scaremongers.

Directory of Open Access Journals

DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.

The Encyclopedia of Life

"Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity".

False Memory Syndrome Foundation

Does it matter if someone has a false belief about the past? Most of the time it doesn't. Sometimes, however, false beliefs cause great harm, not only to the people who hold them, but also to others. This site provides information about how some false beliefs about memory have seriously harmed the believers, their families and other innocent individuals.

Friends of Science in Medicine

Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM) is an association of concerned scientists, clinicians and members of the public who support a rigorous application of the best science to any health-related profession and oppose health education and practice not based on convincing scientific evidence.

Hawk/Handsaw (Paul Wilson)

Hell's News Stand

"Because Crazy Never Sleeps"

James Randi Educational Foundation

Magnet Therapy: A Billion-dollar Boondoggle (Bruce L. Flamm)

Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies

Math Goodies is a free math help site featuring interactive math lessons, homework help, worksheets, forums, and more. Our award-winning site has over 400 pages of activities for students, teachers and parents.

Patent Searching Database

"FreePatentsOnline.com provides fast, easy-to-use access to millions of patents and patent applications"

Periodic Table

Probability and Statistics -- from MathWorld

The abuse or misunderstanding of statistics is endemic in pseudoscience. This site explains many of the tests and terms used in statistics. (Warning – lots of maths, but generally understandable by a lay person.)

Prometheus Books

Pseudodoxia Epidemica : or, Enquiries Into very many Received Tenents And commonly presumed Truths. (Sir Thomas Browne)

Sir Thomas Browne's great 1646 treatise on fallible thinking and self-deception.

Quantum Quackery (Victor J. Stenger)

RationalWiki

Reality Check

"Reality Check is a weekly radio show hosted by Tony Pitman and broadcast on JOY 94.9 FM in Melbourne, Australia. Each week Reality Check brings you a round-up of LGBT world news and a movie review, plus a heavy dose of critical thinking and skeptical analysis of pseudoscience and the paranormal. Psychics, ghosts, UFOs, astrology, diets, alternative medicines and much more all come under the critical eye"

Recovered Memory Therapy in Australia

"Unregulated counsellors and psychotherapists present a real threat to ordinary Australian families. RMT is nothing less than 'trial by therapy'. Mothers and fathers are presumed guilty: there is virtually no defence".

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