Skeptical Inquirer

Skeptical Inquirer is the official journal of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Six times per year Skeptical Inquirer publishes critical scientific evaluations of all manner of controversial and extraordinary claims, including but not limited to paranormal and fringe-science matters, and informed discussion of all relevant issues. In addition to news, articles, book reviews, and investigations on a wide variety of topics, Skeptical Inquirer has a stellar stable of regular columnists including Joe Nickell (“Investigative Files”), Massimo Polidoro (“Notes on a Strange World”), Massimo Pigluicci (“Thinking About Science”), Robert Sheaffer (“Psychic Vibrations”), and SI managing editor Benjamin Radford's reader-driven (“The Skeptical Inquiree”). Yale University neurologist Steven Novella, M.D., founder of the New England Skeptical Society and executive editor of the Science-Based Medicine blog, contributes a new "The Science of Medicine" column, and contributing editor Kenneth W. Krause adds a regular science column, "ScienceWatch."

Ghost-Hunting Mistakes: Science and Pseudoscience in Ghost Investigations

by Ben Radford

Volume 34.6, November/December 2010

There are thousands of amateur ghost hunters around the world whose techniques are modeled after hit cable television shows such as Ghost Hunters, which...

The Poor, Misunderstood Placebo

by Steven Novella

Volume 34.6, November/December 2010

Understanding placebo effects is critical to making sense of medical research and ever-expanding health claims within an increasingly unregulated market.