Teach Evolution, Not Creationism

The British Humanist Association is behind a new campaign called “Teach Evolution, Not Creationism“. Of course any reasonable person is going to support the campaign. No-one wants creationism taught to children as fact in science lessons. But there are a couple of subtleties that should probably be explained in detail. Firstly, I’ve seen this as… Continue reading Teach Evolution, Not Creationism

Storm

If you’ve been hanging around the skeptic community over the last couple of years, then you’ll already know Tim Minchin‘s beat poem Storm. But unless you were at last year’s TAM London you probably won’t have seen the official animation of it which was premièred there. For nearly six months I’ve desperately wanted to be… Continue reading Storm

Homeopathy Petition Response

A year ago, the House of Commons science and technology committee published the results of its evidence check on homeopathy. The committee’s findings were unequivocal and the report strongly recommended against the NHS continuing to waste money on treatments that did nothing. Soon after that I set up a petition asking the government to implement… Continue reading Homeopathy Petition Response

Snow vs Global Warming

Every winter as the snow starts to fall we get some some climate change denier claiming that the existence of snow categorically disproves the existence of climate change. This weekend the race was won by Richard Littlejohn who added the following to the end of his column in the Mail on Sunday. It’s late November… Continue reading Snow vs Global Warming

Government Ignores Science

Section 47 of the Government Response to the Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on homeopathy: We note the Committee’s view that allowing for the provision of homeopathy may risk seeming to endorse it, and we will keep the position under review. However, we do not believe that this risk amounts to a risk to… Continue reading Government Ignores Science

Petition Closed Prematurely

Earlier this year, I created a petition on the (then) government’s petition web site. The petition called for the government to fully implement the recommendations of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on Homeopathy – basically calling on the government to stop wasting money on homeopathy. The petition was due to be… Continue reading Petition Closed Prematurely

Homeopathy Petition

We’re all, of course, very happy about the results of the House of Commons Science and Technology committee’s evidence check on homeopathy. But it’s important to realise exactly what has happened. This is a House of Commons committee which has produced a list of recommendations. The government is under no obligation at all to take… Continue reading Homeopathy Petition

Homeopathic Dilutions

Like many press outlets, the Daily Mail pre-empted the publication of the Science and Technology committee report and published a story yesterday summing up the MPs’ findings. Of course the Daily Mail is the home of the gullible reader and a good number of the comments on that story are attempting to defend the woo-mongers.… Continue reading Homeopathic Dilutions

NHS Money Wasted on Homeopathy

Don’t have time to go into the detail that it deserves, but the House of Commons science and technology committee has published the results of its evidence check on homeopathy. The results won’t, of course, come as any surprise to anyone who has been following the debate. But I have to admit to be impressed… Continue reading NHS Money Wasted on Homeopathy

Andrew Wakefield

After a hearing lasting two and a half years, the General Medical Council has decided that Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in his study which proposed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. It’s now twelve years since his paper was published. During all of that time there has never been more of a tiny… Continue reading Andrew Wakefield