Tavish reviewed Bad science by Ben Goldacre
Review of 'Bad science' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Highly recommend this, it was an 'enlightening' read.
Hardcover, 338 pages
English language
Published Nov. 6, 2008 by Fourth Estate.
Bad science
by Ben Goldacre
4 stars
(50 reviews)
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 …
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.
James Ravenscroft reviewed Bad science by Ben Goldacre
Review of 'Bad science' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A whitty book with a serious undertone, Goldacre is wonderfully methodical and clinical in ripping apart many pseudo-science reports and studies, some of which had me fooled! If you think Cod liver oil makes you smarter, you might want to read this book before you go off and buy your oils.
James Cridland's reading reviewed Bad science by Ben Goldacre
Review of 'Bad science' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The official Kindle edition is riddled with poor typographical errors: words running intoeachother or sometimes having oddly appear-ing hy-phens; and inconsistent formatting. Most irritating.
This starts off as a fascinating read; parts needed rather more concentration than I had available, but it's certainly an eye-opening book. Goldacre comes across as genuinely annoyed at much that he tells us; and while it's fun to watch him debunk the personalities in the alternative medicine business, for example, the main benefit comes from his oft-repeated mantra "it's a little more complicated than that".
You'll never read reports about science in the media in the same way...
Subjects
- Errors, Scientific -- Popular works
- Science -- Popular works