The Hungry and Sceptical Caterpillar’s Opinion
Skeptics’ Circle 92 is hosted by Martin at The Lay Scientist.
You can learn about the premature scare-mongering about mobile phones; reiki for rats; why are woos so angry and many other topics.
We particularly recommend Skeptico’s discussion of provenance and how it enables readers to distinguish woo from genuine research.
Provenance is also useful in determining the validity of scientific claims. If the claim is based on earlier sound science – backed by quality evidence – it is more likely to be true. Not certain to be true, of course. But it will at least have scientific plausibility. But if the claim is based on something that was just made up, then it seems much less likely it would be true.
