Category: History
Your terrain, your fault? Germ Theory Denial 2025
Terrain theory is making a comeback, offering the illusion that illness is always preventable, and blaming the sick for being sick.
The Swan Song of a Chiropractic Heretic
After 41 years of private practice as a chiropractor and 60 years of writing books and articles, the age of 94 finds me rethinking my career, wondering if my contributions to the literature justify the path I took.
Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera.
Prologue from the serialization of the novel Skeptics in the Pub: Cholera.
Spontaneous Human Combustion. A Sort of Narrative Review.
Burning Man. It is more than a rained out festival in the desert.
Quack Quack
Joe Schwarcz's new book Quack Quack is an informative and entertaining look at quackery and pseudoscience past and present. A delightful read.
The war on the science-based regulation of medicine accelerates
Last week, it was reported how increasingly there is a war on the science-based regulation of medicine and physicians. It's an old story, but unfortunately the forces arrayed against science-based policy have been emboldened by the pandemic and an stronger alliance with political groups that are against government regulation in general.
How the “Don’t take this medication with grapefruit juice” warning originated
How a chance discovery by one scientist improved the safety of consumers worldwide.
COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code
Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code and call for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold public health and vaccine advocates "accountable". As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is also not a new antivax narrative, although what is unprecedented is that what was once fringe even among antivaxxers is now...
Deciding Which Risks to Take
No medical treatment is risk-free. Paul Offit's new book covers the history of innovations that went awry and advises how to balance the risks of new medical innovations with the risk of not treating.
Science Goes Viral
Joe Schwarcz has done it again! His new book is not only packed with good science-based information, but is highly entertaining.