Tag Archives: evaluating evidence

Most scientific studies are wrong, but that doesn’t mean what you think it means

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Fallacy Man

When faced with scientific studies that disagree with them, many people are prone to claim that they don’t have to accept those studies because most scientific studies are actually wrong. They generally try to support this claim by either citing … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Vaccines and autism: A thorough review of the evidence

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Fallacy Man

UPDATE March 2019: Since writing this post, anti-vaccer’s lists have grown and several new studies have been published. Therefore, I wrote an updated version of this article which you can read here. The evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism has … Continue reading →

Posted in Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 125 Comments

Science doesn’t prove anything, and that’s a good thing

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Fallacy Man

It is often the case that the most fundamental concepts in science are the ones that are the most misunderstood, and that is certainly true with the concept of “proof.” Many people accept the misconception that science is capable of … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature of Science, Rules of Logic | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Understanding abstracts: Does the study say what you think it says?

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Fallacy Man

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about scientific studies and how to analyze them, but there is a very important topic that, until now, I have only mentioned briefly: abstracts. Abstracts are intended to be useful … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

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

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Fallacy Man

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