Herbs Are Drugs

by Steven Novella

Skeptical Inquirer · The Science of Medicine · Volume 37.2

Herbal supplements are big business. The industry has managed to maintain a “mom and pop” image to the public, the righteous underdog constantly under attack by Big Pharma. In reality, the herbal product industry is just another drug industry, one selling products that are poorly regulated and likely don’t work for their claimed indications.

The Life of Death

by Kyle Hill

Special Articles · Reductio ad Absurdum

June 12, 2013

More humans have died than you will ever meet, see, or learn about. Since our split from the apes, Earth has been littered with the detritus of human demise—nearly 110 billion bodies. If spirits did live on after death, most of the people you meet will have already met their end. Every single house on Earth would be haunted by default.

The Parameters of Pseudoscience

by David Morrison

Skeptical Inquirer · Book Review · Volume 37.2

Skeptics often say they are trying to expose pseudoscience, but in reality we tend to use this term loosely. Creationism, homeopathy, alternative medicine, and cold fusion are clearly pseudoscientific, but what about ancient aliens, UFOs, alien abductions, Bigfoot, crystals, the Moon hoax, and many other claims investigated in the pages of the Skeptical Inquirer?

Bath and a Nap: Sound Bathing at the Integratron

by Carrie Poppy

Special Articles · Hot Drinks

June 6, 2013

Packed with forty or fifty people into a small, domed room in the California desert—a room supposedly blueprinted by aliens—listening to a middle-aged nurse play quartz singing bowls, a person might think they were supposed to stay awake. Not so. At the Integratron, falling asleep is a given.

Retreating to the Church of Anti-Vaccination

by Kylie Sturgess

Special Articles · Curiouser and Curiouser

June 3, 2013

Australian Media and Politicians Taking Steps to Stamp Out Pseudoscience

The Miracle of Molecular Medicine

by Kyle Hill

Special Articles · Reductio ad Absurdum

May 30, 2013

The germ theory of disease allowed modern science to dissipate the harmful miasma that pre-modern medicine sought to remedy. But the organisms that can make us sick are nowhere near as dangerous as a world where every particle might be poison. It’s a world where homeopathy works.