The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.
Latest Articles
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.


