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Book Review: Voodoo Science
The short review of Voodoo Science is that this is not a book that would make a good birthday gift for Alex Chiu or for that matter Deepak Chopra.
Voodoo Science is a happy little bon-bon of a book for the scientifically inclined. Robert Park is the head of the Washington office of the American Physical Society, and has worked inside the beltway helping the U.S. government and others understand the basics of science so they can make appropriate policy decisions. It is depressingly clear how badly they need it.
While there is a certain level of joy to be found in reading about Mr. Park's exploits debunking cranks and frauds, there is a sad realization that prominent legislators have no clue as to the physical laws that are the underpinnings of science. No, I wasn't surprised, but it was depressing nonetheless to see Trent Lott's name on a resolution designed to push through a patent on a "free energy" device, or Tom Harkin using his power to force the NIH to embrace alternative medicine as anything other than a placebo.
While fun, this isn't a perfect book. It is organized a little strangely, with subheadings throwing off the flow of reading, and at a little over 200 pages it seems too short.Park's mission with this book was not to dissect the great scientific frauds of all time, but I thought he could have spent more time on the issues he did bring up and less on trying to understand the Alex Chius of the world. Mr. Park is probably just trying to be polite, but in my reading of Voodoo Science he comes off as being too soft on the very targets of the book.
The case of cold fusion is a perfect example. His recounting of the famous events was right on, but it just fell flat when it came to to point the finger at Pons, Fleischman and the University of Utah for their complicity in fraud before the Utah state legislature. It is akin to writing a book about Enron and saying about Ken Lay: "It is likely he knew what he was doing was possibly improper."
I'd recommend Voodoo Science as a good gift to a younger reader, as it describes foundations of science in an accessible way. As you've probably gathered, an appropriate name for this book might be "The Laws of Thermodynamics and those that thought it didn't apply to them." As such, the book serves as a decent introduction to critical thinking about the physical world around us.
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For instance, they entirely reject the idea of homeopathic medicine. What they neglect to mention is the hundreds of studies proving the effectiveness of this treatment for everything from hangnails to brain tumors. Furthermore, you don't even need a degree to perform the simpler remedies (for such things as TB or polio).
Geeks don't pay much attention to the health care industry, so let me lay it out for you in a way you'll understand: alternative medicine is the Open Source Software of the medical world. The FAA and the AMA are the Microsofts trying to keep proven-better-but-less-expensive treatments down.
Fight the power.
"...force the NIH to embrace alternative medicine as anything other than a placebo."
What makes you think that alternative medicine doesn't work? Can you prove to me by anything other than purely anecdotal evidence that *mainstream* medicine has anything other than a placebo effect?
Quick disclaimer - I am deeply sceptical about both conventional and alternative medicine. However, I have empirical evidence that both *seem* to work. I've tried conventional medicine, and it seemed to make me feel better. I've tried alternative medicine, and *that* seemed to make me feel better too. I've observed similar effects in other people.
Look. Everybody knows the stance of the 'other' side, so I won't waste everybody's time pointing out why subtle crap, (sneaking little lies in with patent truth, using ridicule, and re-enforcement of the con artist's trick of making you defend your own folly so that you don't have to face the embarrassment of others realizing you were conned.), like this book are very much in the best interests of mega corps, military infrastructure, control freak governments and the list of regular suspects.
What continually stuns me is that people like
-Fantastic Lad
based on just the success of t. townsend brown's experiments 50 years ago, how could anyone really think that the world has come no farther in the pursuit of gravity and energy than burning fossil fuels, and general aerodynamics? we know so little (in the popular realm) about gravity, yet we are convinced that we know so much, and that what we know only limits our abilities, rather than freeing us from the forces of gravity.
one thing that we do say we know is that the force of electromagnetism is substantially stronger than that of gravity. given the idea that they are similar forces, why is it so hard to believe that electromagnetism could be used to negate the forces of gravity?
this stuff is all fairly simple really, but then look at the pursuits of today, with string theory and all of this overly dreamy, complex theoretical eleven dimensional horse hockey (to quote sherman potter) and science buys it. it all stinks to me. the economy is the grandest scientific pursuit, and everything else that's considered revolutionary will be squashed if it's a threat. http://www.seaspower.com/
Just because we don't understand how something works, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
As a previous poster says there's plenty of evidence (including clinical trials) that these therapies do work, sometimes better sometimes not as well as 'conventional' medicine.
Don't dismiss what you can't explain.
Quinine is a homeopathic.
It is, in fact, the only effective treatment for malaria that exists. While the theoretical underpinnings are beyond bizarre, they do seem to work. I don't know enough of the homeopathic industry to argue that point.
It seems like a lot of the crowd around here are most interested in science when it leads to something with the trappings of modern technology. This has very little to do with the scientific method, though.
/.-ers happily denouncing alternative medicine practices because they lack FDA-sanctioned double-blind studies to support them. What is being overlooked is that the scientific method need be applied in the same way to denounce a principle as it would be to assert it. All the lack of studies say is that we cannot state with any certainty anything, positive or negative, about the effectiveness of these treatments.
I hear my fellow
Everyone is very happy to speak of pseudo-science, but to attack a alternative treatment without being willing to apply scientific method to it is an indulgence in pseudo-science. We've got a situation of considerable chauvinism in the scientific community. The fact that a system of treatment has been used for hundreds of years by Chinese peasants means only that it will never be examined scientifically. Me, I've got no agenda but curiousity. I imagine some of these alternative medical treatments will work (Accupuncture seems to have an inside track), while others will be easy to eliminate (homeopathy comes to mind, along with those as-seen-on-tv copper-magnetic bracelets). But it would be nice to see science applied braodly, and not only to the tech/medical regimes idea of legitimate areas of study.
The scientific community have ALWAYS used *Experts* and publications to *Debunk* that which threatens them or threatens the foundations they have stood for and risked their reputations for.
Remember if the original scientists would not have endured the debunking attempts of the Catholic Church, we would still live on a flat earth at the center of the universe!
There are new theories almost every day and there is no reason to take a book's word that its impossible to find or create a force that "appears" to nullify the force of gravity or to draw energy from another dimension. Sona-lumenience [sp] (I supposed I'll be de-frocked and ridiculed because I can't spell big scientific terms!) was just a theory a few months ago and now *that* appears it might be a new form of fusion!
Give me a break, Let people experiment in peace. If the entrenched scientists of the world continue to "poo poo" every new idea then the money sources dry up and WE HAVE NO NEW IDEAS.
You're kind of biting the hand that feeds you, arent you? If you can't prove a theory is correct, you automatically beat your chest and tell as many people as possible a dozen reasons why it can't possibly be "real science" and the curious who don't want to look stupid wander away. What you *should* do is make the most honest attempt to verify the person's research to veerify and support his theory. If, after you have tried and it still doesnt work, have a meeting or discussion with the person about his results. Don't waste your time turning him/her into a laughingstock just to make yourself look bigger or to feather your own bed.
Isn't it true that Pons and Fleishmann were hired to continue their research by an Japanese indutrial company? Wasn't it true that even SRL was conducting experiments to duplicate the effect of cold fusion?