EDITOR'S NOTE THE MAGAZINE I O «t SCIENCE AND REASON

EDITOR Voodoo Science, and Giving Astrologers Kendrick Frazier EDITORIAL BOARD A Final Chance James E. Alcock Barry Beyerstein Thomas Casten hysicist Robert Park had already had a good career as a physics professor when Martin Gardner Phe gained some national following in the past decade among scientists and sci­ Ray Hyman ence writers with his weekly "What's New" electronic newsletter distributed Lawrence Jones Fridays from the Washington office of the American Physical Society. From there Philip J. Klass he has a fine vantage point for watching the foibles of those who seek to warp sci­ Joe Nickell ence for their own political agendas or attract public policy support for all manner Lee Nisbet of semiscientific or pseudoscientific schemes, from alternative medical fads to free- Amardeo Sarma energy machines. Now his new book Voodoo Science has thrust him into the Bela Scheiber Eugenie Scott public eye. It draws upon his knowledge of physics, understanding of Washington CONSULTING EDITORS politics, and wry outlook to explore the four aspects of what he calk voodoo Robert A. Baker science: pathological science, in which scientists fool themselves; junk science, in Susan I. Blackmore which people try to befuddle jurists or lawmakers with tortured theories of what John R. Cole Kenneth L. Feder am Id he so rather than what is so; pseudoscience, where there is no evidence but the C. E. M. Hansel language and symbols of science arc used; and fraudulent science, where honest E. C. Krupp error has evolved from self-delusion to fraud. Scott O. Lilienfeld David F. Marks Our commentator on Voodoo Science in the July/August 2000 issue, Gerry James E. Oberg Rising, titled his review "Our Man in Washington." Our might refer to the scien­ Robert Sheaffer tific community, to skeptics, and to others who respect science and reason. I don't David E. Thomas think any of the proponents of what 1 call fringe science are going to think of Park Richard Wiseman MANAGING EDITOR as theirs^. (My own review of Voodoo Science will appear in a forthcoming issue of Physics Today.) ART DIRECTOR Our lead article in this issue was adapted by Park from chapter two of Voodoo Lisa A. Hutter Science. He asks: How do people decide what to believe? And why do some believe PRODUCTION while others doubt? Along the way, he uses specific examples to illuminate differ­ Paul Loynes CARTOONIST ences between pseudoscience and genuine scientific disputes. Rob Pudim • * * WEB PAGE DESIGNER Geoffrey Dean and Arthur Mather report in this issue the results of their invitation Patrick Fitzgerald to astrologers and scientists to propose new kinds of tests that once and for all would PUBLISHER'S REPRESENTATIVE resolve whether there is any validity at all to sun sign columns—the "horoscope" Barry Karr columns in newspapers and magazines that most people think of as . CORPORATE COUNSEL Brenton N. VerPloeg Empirical tests to date have shown, as they say, "a clear and consistent denial of BUSINESS MANAGER validity." Many astrologers agree, saying that horoscope columns have nothing to do Sandra Lesniak with "real" astrology. Yet other astrologers maintain that they have some value. The FISCAL OFFICER issue has been debated within astrology journals for forty years. Dean and Mather Paul Paulin decided to give astrologers one final chance. They sent out written and Internet invi­ CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Anthony C. Battaglia tations to several thousand astrologers and others to propose tests of the validity of CHIEF DATA OFFICER sun sign forecasts and delineations. And they gave the leading astrological organiza­ Michael Cione tions in seven countries a chance to comment, allowing two years for that process. STAFF The results are reported in their article. Briefly, nothing was suggested to cause any­ Jodi Chapman one to change the conclusion that sun sign astrology is not valid. Allison Cossitt Jennifer Miller And in case you are wondering why the Dean and Mather article doesn't exam­ Matthew Nisbet ine the so-called "real" astrology I mentioned above—been there, done that! Ranjit Sandhu Geoffrey Dean himself published two earlier articles in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Anthony Santa Lucia (Winter 1986-87 and Spring 1987) that were widely heralded as one of the most John Sullivan Kathy Vaughn thorough critical examinations of astrology ever done. They also appear in updated Vance Vigrass form with his responses to critics in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER anthology The INQUIRY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Hundredth Monkey (Frazier, Prometheus 1991). Thomas Flynn DIRECTOR OF LIBRARIES Timothy S. Binga

The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific ^XzZ^_ Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. an international organization.

4 September/October 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER