What views, if any, did the speakers express on the issue of immunization? Three of the speakers addressed this subject. We shall see that one homeopath doesn’t think that vaccines are needed; another thinks that homeopathy can both treat people with malaria and offer effective prophylaxis; and the conference organiser is hiding behind a fig leaf. Read the rest of this entry »
[BPSDB] Professor Ernst’s recent exploration of the dubious ethics apparently demonstrated by some homeopaths, pharmacists and their professional bodies in, “peddling so-called ‘vaccines’ without any evidence that they are effective” set me thinking about the recent “Scientific Research in Homeopathy” conference.
Dangerous delusions
Posted by apgaylard on September 12, 2008
Posted in Pseudoscience, homeopathy | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Alliance of Registered Homeopaths, ARH, CMA, Complementary Medical Association, homeopathic prophylaxis, homeopathy, homoeopathy, Jayney Goddard, Karin Mont, Lionel Milgrom, Scientific Research in Homeopathy, vaccination | 3 Comments »
BBC editor concedes ‘happiest place’ story is baseless (updated)
Posted by apgaylard on September 5, 2008
[BPSDB] This is just a short post to highlight an interesting discussion that I’ve got into with the BBC’s Health Editor for their News website. The BBC is carrying an entirely spurious story about the geographical distribution of ‘happiness’ in the UK; both on TV and on-line.
The tell-tale phrase in the on-line article is that, “the researchers stress that the variations between different places in Britain are not statistically significant.” This appears part way through the piece and entirely scuppers it as a story. A few ‘bad science’ types have spotted this - notably gimpy - and let the BBC know what they think. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Science Journalism, Statistics | Tagged: BBC Editorial Complaints Unit, BBC News, Statistics | 15 Comments »
Making your own reality - part 2
Posted by apgaylard on August 26, 2008
Mr Ullman has very thoughtfully copied me in on the reply that he made to Louise McLean of Zeus. Given that this is a Zeus’ official response to my query, I have decided to post it - along with a few comments.
Last week, having failed to get Sue Young to engage with a very simple criticism of a clearly erroneous statement made by American homeopath and author Dana Ullman in an interview she is carrying on her site, I sent my comment directly to the Zeus Information Service.
Posted in homeopathy | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Dana Ullman, homeopathy, homoeopathy, Oscillococcinum, The Lancet 2005 366:2083-2085, The Lancet 2005 366:726-732 | 15 Comments »
Making your own reality
Posted by apgaylard on August 19, 2008
Well-known American homeopath Dana Ullman, in an interview which is being carried on the Sue Young Homeopathy website is making up his own reality and it seems that Sue Young would like to live in it, unencumbered by the intrusion of nasty facts. Read the rest of this entry »
This is just a short post to note, with disappointment but not surprise, that some homeopaths are still making up things about the meta-regression analysis of Shang et al and others are only interested in parroting them.
Posted in homeopathy, unpublished | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Dana Ullman, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad, homeopathy, homoeopathy, Sue Young, The Lancet 2005 366:2083-2085, The Lancet 2005 366:726-732 | 10 Comments »
Publish and be damned
Posted by apgaylard on August 16, 2008
This week a homeopath, Clive Stewart, has provided an excellent example of the failure to understand the value of scientific publications and the debates they provoke. I’ve been exchanging views with him on the merits of the meta-regression analysis of homeopathic treatments published by Shang et al in The Lancet. He made some claims about the ailments covered by the eight ‘higher quality’ - lowest bias studies of homeopathy from which the authors concluded, “the effects seen in placebo controlled trials of homoeopathy are compatible with the placebo hypothesis”. I demonstrated that these claims were incorrect and he went on to make the very guarded apology shown below.
One of the things that I’ve noted as I have been drawn into debates with advocates of homeopathy, dowsing, and other strange belief systems over the last year or so is the total lack of appreciation for what science is and how it works. Its values and methods are misunderstood, misrepresented, misinterpreted, or even maligned.
Posted in homeopathy | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Clive Stuart, homeopathy, homoeopathy, The Lancet 2005 366:2083-2085, The Lancet 2005 366:726-732 | 9 Comments »
Spying on Shang
Posted by apgaylard on August 10, 2008
It seems like I’m becoming a collector of misconceptions about the Lancet paper published by Shang et al (2005). This week I’ve been having a small disagreement with a homeopath named Clive Stuart on Margaret McCartney’s blog at Ft.com.
One of his criticisms of Shang et al was new to me. He said, “When the 8 studies were finally revealed, it turned out that most of them were for the prophylaxis of flu.”
Now, having read the paper in question; the ‘webappendices’; the author’s letter of reply in the Lancet and the additional material they have made available on-line: I was surprised.
I pointed out that there were only two studies in the final eight that were concerned with ‘flu-like symptoms: Rottey (80) and Papp (71) [note: the references are to the webappendix and additional material]. I thought that this would be the end of it, but no, he countered, “You say that “only two related to flu-like symptoms”. This is incorrect. Actually 5 of the 8 studies related to influenza. Three dealt with prophylaxis of influenza and two with actual treatment of influenza. One study dealt with prophylaxis of conjunctivitis, one with treating acute respiratory inflammations and one with muscle soreness in runners.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in homeopathy | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Clive Stuart, homeopathy, homoeopathy, The Lancet 2005 366:2083-2085, The Lancet 2005 366:726-732 | 18 Comments »
Adrian’s attic: stress birefringence in an optically sensitive gel
Posted by apgaylard on August 3, 2008
Stress pattern in a cast gelatine/glycerol block under white-light illumination between crossed polarisers
Digging through boxes in my attic recently, I unearthed my A-level Physics project (c.1982). As it covers some interesting physics and has some pretty pictures, I thought that I’d use some of the material for a blog post. I’ve also unearthed some other old project work, so this will be the first of a short, occaisional, series that I’ll call “Adrian’s attic”.
Now, I’m not making any claims that this is particularly good stuff; it’s just something I did. However, it is an interesting bit of physics and I am sure that it could be re-worked into an even better project (for example, I used a pretty poor, wet-film, 35mm camera to take the pictures).
Posted in Adrian's attic | Tagged: A-level physics project, Adrian's attic, photoelasticity, stress birefringence | 5 Comments »
Premature publication and the infra-red ‘cure’
Posted by apgaylard on July 17, 2008
Alzheimer's Helmet
Given my current near-obsession with LEDs and phototherapy, I was pleased that the nice people at Holford Watch pointed me to the Mail on Sunday. As I’m not a regular reader of this august journal of record; without this prompt, I would have totally missed this intriguing headline, “Dementia patient makes ‘amazing’ progress after using infra-red helmet“.
It sounds like science-fiction. The story reports that after wearing a ‘hat’ that allowed 700 LEDs to ‘bathe’ his brain with infra-red light Clem Fennell has experienced an amazing remission in his, “aggressive type of dementia“. Initially he was, “unable to answer the phone, order a meal or string more than a couple of words together”. After a series of treatments his deterioration has, reportedly, stopped; he responds more quickly to people when they talk to him; can order his own meals in restaurants; and can go to the bank or post-office on his own. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Phototherapy | Tagged: Alzheimer's Hat, Dr Gordon Dougal, Phototherapy, Virulite | 3 Comments »
Blind Anger
Posted by apgaylard on July 13, 2008
Lionel Milgrom, HOMEOPATHY AND THE NEW FUNDAMENTALISM, Slide 1
In the second part of my journey through the arid valley of the recent ‘Scientific Research in Homeopathy’ conference under the guidance of the philosophically myopic Lionel Milgrom we’ll see that the philosophical element of his apologia (powerpoint file) is empty, inconsistent, contradictory, inept and misleading.
The other bits are no better either. (Milgrom’s lecture has been skillfully deconstructed on the quackometer by Andy Lewis)
Milgrom claims that it’s time for homeopaths and other CAM advocates to get angry: it seems his anger has blinded him to the weakness of his arguments.
Posted in Logical Fallacies, Philosophy, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, homeopathy | Tagged: bad philosophy, Dr Alex Tournier, homeopathy, Imre Lakatos, Lionel Milgrom, Paul Feyerabend, Scientific Research in Homeopathy, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn | 16 Comments »
Shang’s secret - the hydra of homoeomythology
Posted by apgaylard on July 4, 2008
Milgrom, L. HOMEOPATHY AND THE NEW FUNDAMENTALISM, slide15
The Complementary Medical Association (CMA) recently held the inaugural “Scientific Research in Homeopathy” conference at the University of Westminster. Homeopathy researcher and quantum flap-doodler extraordinaire Lionel Milgrom was one of the speakers. Reviewing the slides of his presentation is a real treat; a truely remarkable document. (It’s available here as a powerpoint file)
For this post I’ll just pick his slide on the controvertial (for homeopaths) Lancet paper by Shang et al.
Posted in homeopathy | Tagged: Aijing Shang, Dr Alex Tournier, Dr Damien Downing, homeopathy, homoeopathy, Lancet 366 (2005); 726-732, Lionel Milgrom, Scientific Research in Homeopathy | 10 Comments »
