For those who didn't see it earlier, I wrote a recent piece for Discovery News explaining how news stories exaggerate risks of disease, and how to understand relative vs. absolute risk in journal findings... you can read it HERE. Hopefully it will help calm some...
Science
BBC Travel Promotes ‘Walking Palm Tree’ Myth
A BBC travel reporter writing a piece about Ecuador’s Sumaco biopark repeats a common myth as fact: Specifically that there is a palm tree that “walks” across the forest floor. I investigated this claim years ago, and wrote about it in both Skeptical Inquirer magazine...
Italian Supreme Court Cleared Scientists in Earthquake Case
The Italian Supreme Court finally cleared six scientists of manslaughter in a case about failing to warn residents of a 2009 earthquake. This case highlights scientists' difficulty in communicating risk to the public; you can read it HERE. You can find more on me and...
Alex Tsakiris, Psychic Detectives, and Bad Science
Good science requires good data, and to get valid results scientists must consider all of the evidence. If a researcher chooses to exclude some of the information available in an experiment, for example, he or she should offer a rationale for doing so. When...
7 Questions with Writer/Director of ‘The Gospel According to Stephenson’
In my new CFI blog I interview the writer/director of a proposed skeptical vampire film. Plus, what prions taste like, and a bad clown... you can read it HERE.
2012 Disaster Film Contains Pro-Science Themes
From the Radford Files archives: 2012 Disaster Film Contains Pro-Science Themes The recent big-budget Hollywood blockbuster disaster film 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich, depicts a global catastrophe and flood. John Cusack stars as a divorced Los...
Quoted in New Report on Debunking Online Rumors
A journalism researcher named Craig Silverman published a report on best practices for debunking online misinformation in journalism and the skeptical community: “I recently completed a fellowship with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism that saw me study how news...
Circling the Pendulum: Conversations with a Dowser
Benjamin Radford Skeptics often encounter—or are cornered by—people making all sorts of claims. Most of them, such as those tested by me, Jim Underdown of CFI-West, the JREF, and others, are sincere people. They are very rarely hoaxers or liars but instead...
Chinese Zoo Animals Monitored to Predict Earthquakes
A Chinese zoo is monitoring some of their animals to see if they can predict earthquakes; the premise has some possible merit, but they need a refresher on research methodology... My analysis is HERE.
A History of Anti-Vaccination Fears
My recent Discovery News article examines the history of anti-vaccination campaigns and explains some reasons why they're still with us, and probably always will be; you can find it HERE.