Author Archives: Fallacy Man

Does Splenda cause cancer? A lesson in how to critically read scientific papers

Last week, researchers published a paper suggesting that sucralose (Splenda) causes cancer in male mice. This has re-sparked an old debate, and various media outlets have been quick to pounce on the results and flood the internet with articles like, … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Understanding the reported risks of medicines, foods, toxic chemicals, etc.

We are constantly bombarded with news reports and claims like, “A new study found that chemical X increases your risk of disease Y by 100%” or “doing X makes you twice as likely to have Y,” but what do those … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science, Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Is the peer-review system broken? A look at the PLoS ONE paper on a hand designed by “the Creator”

The internet has recently gone nuts over a scientific paper published in PLoS ONE (a generally respectable journal) which contained several lines suggesting that the human hand was designed by “the Creator.” The paper was quickly retracted, but the brouhaha … Continue reading

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8 lessons that MythBusters taught us about science and skepticism

This is a sad week for me, because this week I must bid farewell to one of my all time favorite TV shows: MythBusters. In a world where educational television has degraded to the point that it consists largely of … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged | 11 Comments

6 reasons why anti-vaccers are wrong that “being sick is good”

Is being sick a good thing? The answer to that question should be an obvious and resounding, “no!” Nevertheless, it is an extremely common claim made by anti-vaccers. They frequently argue that vaccine preventable diseases like measles are actually good … Continue reading

Posted in Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged | 3 Comments