Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science. When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water, turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.' Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian. This book will be about all the 'bad science' we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own 'bad science' moments -- from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts -- that a lot of the so-called 'science' which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. It will be satirical and amusing -- exposing the ridiculous -- but it will also provide the reader with the facts they need. Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science. Lead title / An informative and witty expose of the 'bad science' we are all subjected to in the daily media. / Ben Goldacre writes the 'Bad Science' column in the Guardian, which is one of the most popular columns in the paper, receiving hundreds of emails every week with tip-offs for stories. / www.badscience.net gets an average of 4,000 different users a day, with dozens of comments on each new post, and several thousand subscribers. / 'Bad Science' will also be a television series, written and presented by Ben Goldacre, to be broadcast on BBC 3. / Ben made Gillian McKeith drop the 'Dr'. / Competition: Freakonomics; Does Anything Eat Wasps; How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World.
Ben Goldacre is a doctor, writer, broadcaster and academic who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks. Bad Science reached Number One in the non-fiction charts, has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK alone, and has been translated into 25 languages. He is 38 and lives in London.
‘The most important book you’ll read this year, and quite possibly
the funniest.’
Charlie Brooker ‘Bad Science inroduces the basic scientific
principles to help everyone to become an effective bullshit
detector.’
Sir Iain Chalmers, Founder of the Cochrane Library' “There are two
compelling reasons to read this book. The first is to revel in its
systematic dismantling of the nonsense put forth by nutritionists,
homeopaths, cosmetic companies and the pharmaceutical industry in
their attempts to persuade us to buy their products or buy into
their philosophy. The second is for the fascinating discussion of
why we are so easily duped, and what inclines us to see patterns in
randomness or cause where there are none. Throw in the book's sheer
entertainment value and you have one the essential reads of the
year so far” New Scientist “A hugely entertaining book…While every
chapter is entertaining, a few are genuinely eye-opening…This isn't
just an essential primer for anyone who has ever felt uneasy about
news coverage of faddish scientific 'breakthroughs', health scares
and 'studies have shown' stories – it should be on the National
Curriculum.” Time Out Books of the Year, The Scotsman, Alexander
McCall's choice
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