I just finished reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, and it's the most important book I've read in a long time. It's not a thriller, it's a nonfiction work of popular science. But that description doesn't do this book justice. Bad Science has the power to change the world (for the better), if people would read it carefully and with an open mind. It rails against the anti-science winds sweeping our culture, and more importantly, empowers ordinary people of reasonable intelligence to think like scientists and protect themselves from so much unscientific claptrap dressed up as science that is for sale, is on the Internet, and even in respectable media such as newspapers.
In fact, I believe Bad Science should be a mandatory part of all high school science curricula, or at the very least, required reading for all medical students (who in my experience are as vulnerable to pseudoscience as other people). Heck, whoever you are, if you haven't read this book, you need to.
Ben Goldacre is a brainy muckraker who, with acerbic wit and unassailable accuracy, attacks anti-scientific BS and clearly explains how it cloaks itself in a scientific aura, and how it's wrong. The beautiful thing is, you don't have to be a scientist or even a particularly scientifically literate person to understand. Anybody with a brain can detect BS if given the proper tools.
Goldacre's targets cover the spectrum from "quacks, hacks" to "big pharma flacks". He lays bare the alternative realities in which live detox treatments, ear candling, anti-aging cosmetics, homeopathy, diet experts, antioxidants, pharmaceutical companies with large advertising budgets, vaccine opponents, and most frightening of all, people who oppose antiretroviral therapy for AIDS and argue that HIV does not cause this disease.
In my opinion, the author is utterly fair in his arguments. But he is not always nice. (Is there a reason why he should be?) Ben Goldacre is my new hero, slaying dragons of ignorance and going head-to-head in intellectual combat with some of the most hysterically irrational elements in society today.
Along the way as you read this entertaining book, you'll learn what you need to know about clinical trials, about the power and limitations of statistics, and about how to think critically, to become a little Ben Goldacre yourself.
My favorite quote from the book is one of the best science quotes of all time:
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".
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- Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern PlaguesMD Blaser, Martin J.Kindle Edition
Good - Basic - Informative
Overall a very good and amusing book. I think the author does get a little passionate about some topics and rambles a bit, but it's an ok tradeoff.I do wish the author gave more defining criteria for some of the items he discusses, especially about homeopathy. I would like to know more about what kind of products he has referring to in some of his discussions.Quality: see the photo, but the printer messed up on some of the pages and makes it hard to read! I thought I was having a stroke!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2012
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
great book. A must for all health professionals
Reviewed in Mexico on March 26, 2022
Ilaria Del Vescovo
A must-read book for everyone!
Reviewed in Italy on March 14, 2020
