Shortlisted for the 2009 Royal Society Prize for Science Books.
Ben Goldacre targets medical charlatans, quacks, frauds and cons with great relish. His medical expertise allowing him to dissect each one proving the case against them, pulling no punches, his often witheringly funny comments make this an exhilarating read. Funny he can be but his serious purpose is to show how we are being deceived, with any luck giving readers the ammunition to spot future deceptions for themselves.
Comparison: Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst, Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All by Rose Shapiro
July 2009 Guest Editor Louise Wener on Bad Science by BEN GOLDACRE
A
simple, witty debunking of the junk science that has taken root in our
culture; from the myth of detoxing and homeopathic cure alls, to our
fear of the MMR vaccine. Goldacre skillfully examines how the media
whips us into a frenzy about non-existent bogeymen and makes us all the
poorer as a consequence. At a time when we seem to be rejecting
scientific fact and seeking solace in instant, gobbledygook solutions,
it feels like vital stuff.
| Primary Genre | Popular Science |
| Recommendations: |
Shorlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
Longlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books
Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science we’re fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks…
When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water and 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 of a weekend’s immorality.’
Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the ‘Bad Science’ column in the Guardian and his book is about all the ‘bad science’ we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own ‘bad science’ moments – from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts – that a lot of the so-called ‘science’ which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. Satirical and amusing – and unafraid to expose the ridiculous – it provides the reader with the facts they need to differentiate the good from the bad.
Full of spleen, this is a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of ‘bad science’.
Bad Science features in the following genres: Popular Science, Non-Fiction Books of the Month, eBooks of the Month, Science: general issues, Mathematics and Science, Recommendations
Bad Science is available in Ebook, Paperback
Bad Science was written by Ben Goldacre and published by Harpercollins Publishers
Bad Science has 370 pages
£9.89
