Volume 30, Number 4
July/August 2006

Articles

Magnet Therapy

A Billion-dollar Boondoggle

About a billion dollars a year is now spent on "magnet therapy," which is claimed to eliminate many symptoms and diseases. Basic scientific principles indicate that all of this money is wasted.

BRUCE L. FLAMM

The Philosophy behind Pseudoscience

Every intellectual endeavor, whether authentic or bogus, has an underlying philosophy. Science, for example, involves six kinds of philosophical ideas. These differ totally from those behind pseudoscience. Evaluating a field's underlying philosophy is a revealing way to make distinctions and judge worth.

MARIO BUNGE

Why Quantum Mechanics Is Not So Weird after All

Richard Feynman's "least-action" approach to quantum physics in effect shows that it is just classical physics constrained by a simple mechanism. When the complicated mathematics is left aside, valuable insights are gained.

PAUL QUINCEY

Science Is for Sale

(And It's Not Only for the Money)

Until all types of threats to scientific integrity are discussed and handled more effectively, they jeopardize the validity of medical research and the public's trust in it. In the end, public resources and patients' health are at stake.

RAGNAR LEVI

Why Great Thinkers Sometimes Fail to Think Critically

Why did two great thinkers, Arthur Conan Doyle and Alfred Russel Wallace, believe in spiritualism and other paranormal claims? It was not because they lacked critical thinking skills but because they were not disposed to use those skills.

D. ALAN BENSLEY

Comment and Opinion

In Defense of the Higher Values

KENDRICK FRAZIER

Columns

Editor's Note

Explanatory Frameworks and Investigative Exposes

News and Comment

One Big STEP: Another Major Study Confirms That Distant Prayers Do Not Heal the Sick
Florida Psychic Jailed for Fraud
Governor Snubs Kentucky Academy of Science about Intelligent Design
Dinosaur Adventure Land Slated for Demolition
'Alien Rains' of Kerala Not So Alien after All
A Swedish Professorship in Parapsychology
Alien Autopsy Hoax Revealed-Again
The Wrong Stuff: Men's Magazine's Psychic Columnist
Center for Inquiry Opens in India

Investigative Files

Riddle of the Crystal Skulls

JOE NICKELL

Thinking About Science

When Philosophy Matters

MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI

Notes on a Strange World

Houdini's Impossible Demonstration

MASSIMO POLIDORO

Psychic Vibrations

The Internet: A Shining Beacon of Truth

ROBERT SHEAFFER

The Skeptical Inquiree

Please Pass the Globster

BENJAMIN RADFORD

New Books

Science Best Sellers

Letters to the Editor

Book Reviews

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

By Ray Kurzweil

JAMES N. GARDNER

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

By Mary Roach

GREG MARTINEZ

Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View

By Richard Tarnas

GEOFFREY DEAN

Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders

By Jamie Whyte

MARK DURM

Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend

By Gillian Bennett

Organ Theft Legends

By Veronique Campion-Vincent, translated by Jacqueline Simpson