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Voodoo Science: the Road from Foolishness to Fraud

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Voodoo Science: the Road from Foolishness to Fraud BOOK REVIEWS Our Man in Washington GERRY RISING Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. By Robert Park. Oxford University Press, New York, London, 2000. ISBN: 0-19-513516-6. 256 pp. Hardcover, $25. s anybody out there listening? When no scientific background. This is junk science. It typically consists of tortured scientists expose the nonsense inun- theories of what could be so, with lit- Idating our society, why cannot we tle supporting evidence to prove that find our way out of the wilderness? VOODOO it «so. When Joe Newman and James Sometimes there is no evidence at Patterson independently develop all. Two hundred years ago, educated people imagined that the greatest energy-producing machines that break SCIENCE contribution of science would be to the fundamental laws of thermodynam- free the world from superstition and ics, when salt water is sold as Vitamin O humbug. It has not happened. with its "stabilized oxygen molecules," Ancient beliefs in demons and magic still sweep across the modern land- when Stanley Pons and Martin scape, but they are now dressed in the Fleischmann announce cold fusion, language and symbols of science: a when homeopathic practitioners claim best-selling health guru explains that that water has memory, when power his brand of spiritual healing is firmly grounded in quantum theory: half the lines are designated cancer causes, and population believes Earth is being vis- when magnets are proposed as health ited by space aliens who have mas- agents, our media communicators tered faster-than-light travel; and descend in force to provide glowing educated people wear magnets in indeed change. Increasingly, journalists their shoes to draw energy from the tributes. And when highly qualified sci- Earth. This is pseudoscience. Its practi- entists confront these activities for what as well as scientists are following his tioners may believe it to be science, they are, no retractions appear and delightful weekly electronic column—to just as witches and faith healers may often financial support continues to be be found at www.aps.org/WN—and truly believe that they can call forth supernatural powers. misdirected. now they have this highly entertaining But watch out, voodoo scientists. and yet remarkably fair book, Voodoo What may begin as honest error, Better days may lie ahead. Robert Park, Science: the Road from Foolishness to however, has a way of evolving director of the Washington office of the Fraud, to turn to for background. through almost imperceptible steps from self-delusion to fraud. The line Park carefully defines his terms: American Physical Society as well as between self-delusion and fraud is professor of physics and former chair of Scientists, no less than others, are thin. Because it is not always easy to the University of Maryland Department inclined to see what they expect to tell when that line is crossed, I use the of Physics, writes so well that tilings may see, and an erroneous conclusion by a term voodoo science to cover them all: respected colleague often carries other pathological science, junk science, scientists along on the road to pseudoscience, and fraudulent sci- Gerry Rising, a retired State University of ignominy. This is pathological science, ence. New York at Buffalo Distinguished in which scientists manage to fool Teaching Professor, writes a weekly themselves. By dumping all these kinds of misdi- "Nature Watch" column for The Buffalo If scientists can fool themselves, rection into the wastebasket of voodoo News. Many of those columns are collected how much easier is it to craft argu- science, Park is able to avoid a con- at www.acsu.buffab.edu/-insrisg/nature/. ments deliberately intended to befud- dle jurists or lawmakers with little or frontational approach. He doesn't need 5 2 July/August 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER BOOK REVIEWS to tell us which are purposely fraudulent brief victory: his expose" led the FTC to expressed concern rhat his outspoken- junk science—intelligent readers know shut down Rose Creek Health Products, ness could hurt physicists who have full well!—and so in his presentation of the purveyors of Vitamin O—$20 vials of grants under governmental review. I evidence he doesn't come across as salt water posing as an oxygen enhancer hope that they are incorrect—we too another of those ivory tower scientists that "maximizes your nutrients, purifies often forget that, like Pogo's enemies, protecting their own turf. In fact, what I your bloodstream, and eliminates toxins many of those government employees find best about Park's exposes is his will- and poisons." (Unfortunately, however, as are us. But, whether they are right or ingness to explore the dynamics of the Park has pointed out in a recent column, not, I support Park's tongue-in-cheek many examples he provides and even to the product has reared its ugly head once disclaimer attached to his weekly empathize with their proponents. again. It is being distributed through a reports: "Opinions are the author's and new vendor.) are not necessarily shared by the APS, It's the sort of story Americans love. A backwoods wizard who never finished Sadly, some of Park's colleagues have but they should be." high school makes a revolutionary sci- entific discovery. He is denied the fruits of his genius by a pompous sci- Neuromythologies entific establishment and a patent BENJAMIN RADFORD examiner who rejects his application for a patent on "an unlimited source of energy" without even examining it, Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind on the grounds that all alleged inven- and Brain. Edited by Sergio Delia Sala. John Wiley and tions of perpetual motion machines Sons, New York, 2000. ISBN 0-471-98303-9. 291 pp. are refused patents. Not a man to be Paperback, $38.95. pushed around, Joseph Wesley Newman takes on the U.S. govern- ment, filing suit in federal court against the Patent and Trademark ther, even more misguided beliefs and Office. It's the little man battling a he human brain is perhaps the gigantic, impersonal system. most fundamental, mysterious, pseudosciences. A rolling pebble of mis- and magical organ in the uni- understanding tends to pick up further T mistakes, incorrect inferences, leaps of What is saddest about many of the verse. It is the origin of thought, speech, stories Park tells is their history in our movement, perception, music, and logic, and outright lies as it tumbles, nation's legislatures and courts. Con- everything else that makes us human. soon becoming a giant snowball of mis- gress makes laws that protect the dis- It is no wonder, then, that many information. credited practice of homeopathy and myths and misperceptions have arisen For example, the myth that people other forms of "natural" medicine from surrounding the mind and brain. From only use 10 percent of their brains is regulation, it continues to push NASA information on how much of our brain used to promote psychic powers. The to send men into space to perform we use to what the right and left hemi- myth of extreme laterality of brain func- tasks more suited to machines, it pro- spheres do, many people are quick to tion is used to promote expensive (and vides an often supportive forum for proffer fallacious "facts" gleaned from bogus) personal achievement programs wrongheaded nonsense. Meanwhile, advertisements or backyard conversa- and books, promising to provide "whole our juries, in emotional findings for tions. Mind Myths addresses these brain learning." And rhe myth of a those "little guys" who confront "mind- assumptions and many more. "body" or "mind" energy is used to sup- less industry," turn science on its head. From trendy "smart bars" hawking port psychic powers and bogus therapies And still worse, our judges do little bet- "memory boost" drinks to gadgets claim- aimed at removing "energy blocks." ter in their response to patently false ing to increase brain power, there is no Readers will find many names famil- concepts. shortage of unproven therapies to drain iar to the skeptical movement among If only this book could be made the wallets of uninformed consumers. Just the contributors, including Barry required reading for those called upon to pop a pill, down a drink, or put on special Beyerstein, James Randi, Elizabeth make decisions about science, our politi- goggles, we're told, and you'll be smarter, Loftus, and Massimo Polidoro. Each cal leaders and our journalists in particu- faster, and better than ever before. writes within his or her specialty to lar, how well we would be served. Some of It is important to note that many of die stories Park tells you will find discour- the myths demolished here are not eso- Benjamin Radford is a writer and manag- aging, but you will come away from this teric, finer-point misunderstandings ing editor of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. He book reeling that science could not be among brain-behavior scientists. These wrote on the myth that people only use 10 better represented in Washington. He has myths need to be challenged because percent of their brains in the March/April already enjoyed at least one important if they frequently form the basis for fur- 1999 issue. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July/August 2000 53 .
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