Bad Science
by Ben Goldacre · first published 2008
69% recommend31% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Entertaining, well-referenced tour of how media, quacks and pharma distort health science; teaches readers to read studies skeptically. Suits beginners wanting an intro to the scientific method and clinical trials.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science.When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water, turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged
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…executed with little or no additional effort. The more information is available the more likely I'd go on but Ben Goldacre has said it all far better than I could, and in far greater detail in his book Bad Science which I think has just been released in the US (http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Science-Quacks-Pharma-Flacks/dp/08...). What is important though is not to assume that because the evidence for conventional…
on “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science” ↗…that may make problems worse, while also encouraging patients to stay away from tested treatments, should play no part in a modern society. If you're in any doubt about this, perhaps you should read 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre, which takes a whistle stop tour of such quackery, as well as the various unethical practices undertaken by pharmaceutical companies.
on “Spain will soon overtake Japan in life expectancy rankings” ↗Quite right. I remember Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science documenting a few examples. I hope these are the same examples raised in the letter, because otherwise a lot of miscarriage of justice has happened in the UK. What I remember from the book is entirely…
on “Experts warn Letby inquiry of misreading stats to explain 'suspicious' deaths” ↗As a person who read about studies like these, how do I filter out the "real" studies versus the studies blown out of proportions? I've read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (which I highly recommend), but I don't have the time to do much research on every study newspapers/other media come out with. Is there a simple way to find out whether this - or any other study, for…
on “60 minutes: Is sugar toxic?” ↗I can't recommend any text on the subject more highly than "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. It covers a lot more topics than just this, but it still covers the basics very well and I believe it has references for its claims (it has been a while since I read it and I don't have…
on “Ben Goldacre: Here’s the foreword to my new book, Bad Pharma” ↗…they do not have a benefit over placebo for most patients - only for the most depressed patients. And also some risk of worsening things for younger patients. I think I got this impression from reading Bad Science, which had references IIRC. Example column from the blog version: http://www.badscience.net/2008/01/washing-the-numbers-sellin... http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X
on “The Serotonin Levels-Depression Link Is a 'Marketing Myth,' Psychiatrist Claims” ↗…likely to die from x, sounds impressive, risk increase from 0.001 to 0.005 percent does not. Newspapers want to ... sell newspapers, and sounding dramatic is part of it. If every person capable of reading "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre did so, this would be a better world. It's by the way the best I've seen to give the amateur an understanding of statistics, studies, being critical, manipulation by media, et cetera...…
on “Cambridge professor on how to stop being manipulated by misleading statistics” ↗…how it has been established that more placebos are more effective than fewer and also how the shape and colour of the tablets relates to their effectiveness. If you want some references on this, look up Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It's a good read, btw.
on “Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.” ↗…what will make us happy. 3. The Tiger that isn't by Andrew Dilnot (http://tinyurl.com/38hntqx) - interesting guide to our instinctive interpretation of statistics and how the media manipulates it. 4. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (http://tinyurl.com/3yk8woz) - at once amusing and horrifying look at various aspects of pseudoscience, especially as applied to healthcare. Fiction: 1. Anything by Iain Banks, especially…
on “Ask HN: Summer Reading Recommendations?” ↗If you are interested in learning more actual logic, and scientific reasoning, I suggest Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, a book about pseudoscience. The author explains some flaws in some bad science in popular culture, and by learning from him you can learn how to critique bad logic.
on “Ask HN: How to develop logical skills?” ↗…longitude at sea. Dava Sobel is a great writer and makes this topic totally engaging (aside: Sobel started her writing career as a technical writer at IBM). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book) - Bad Science is Ben Goldacre's essential and extensive criticism of the media's health care reportage and of various health-related issues (vaccinations, placebos, etc.). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science_(book)…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of 2010?” ↗Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is one such book (aimed mainly at the damage caused by quack medical beliefs).
on “A field guide to bullshit” ↗Anyone who's read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science book will realise that you can sell anything and the science of whether it works or not is irrelevant. See, for a particularly bad example, "Brain Gym". This is a set of nonsense exercises that children…
on “What happens when your startup gets debunked by science?” ↗…Cochrane Institute already do something similar? They perform meta analysis of studies and talk about the validity of their statistical methods. http://summaries.cochrane.org/ Read about it in the book Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.
on “Statistics Done Wrong – The woefully complete guide” ↗I want to reiterate the articles recommendation of the book "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre [0]. I learned a lot from it and found it enjoyable--and it's available in Audiobook form. [0] http://smile.amazon.com/Bad-Science-Quacks-Pharma-Flacks/dp/...
on “Bad luck, bad journalism and cancer rates” ↗