When Consensus Replaces Predictive Value, Science Becomes Nonsense

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William Briggs

By William BriggsA new study came out that claimed intermittent fasting is bad for you. This shocked a lot of people. Here’s one of the hot headlines: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death“.Ninety one percent? Dude. That’s a lot. Makes it sound l...

Malcolm Kendrick

By Malcolm KendrickAs everyone knows, a placebo is an inactive ‘sugar’ pill. Except when it isn’t. Which is almost always. Here, from 2010, is an article about research on placebos carried out by Dr Beatric Golomb [1]."What rules are there about what goes into placebos?Despite carrying moniker...

Broken Science

March 07, 2024 commentary in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene and a documentary by the Health Physics Society.From corruption in governing bodies to deliberate misrepresentations by researchers, this series takes the first steps to correct the scientific record in the field of c...

Emily Kaplan

Februaury 28, 2024 episode of the Dr. Drew PodcastDr. Drew and Emily call attention to the flaws in the current state of modern science. Emily and Drew discuss the Dana-Farber scandal, the cost/benefit of going to college, the do-or-die culture in science, and the lack of curiosity among journalists...

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William Briggs

By William BriggsA new study came out that claimed intermittent fasting is bad for you. This shocked a lot of people. Here’s one of the hot headlines: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death“.Ninety one percent? Dude. That’s a lot. Makes it sound l...

Malcolm Kendrick

By Malcolm KendrickAs everyone knows, a placebo is an inactive ‘sugar’ pill. Except when it isn’t. Which is almost always. Here, from 2010, is an article about research on placebos carried out by Dr Beatric Golomb [1]."What rules are there about what goes into placebos?Despite carrying moniker...

Broken Science

March 07, 2024 commentary in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene and a documentary by the Health Physics Society.From corruption in governing bodies to deliberate misrepresentations by researchers, this series takes the first steps to correct the scientific record in the field of c...

Emily Kaplan

Februaury 28, 2024 episode of the Dr. Drew PodcastDr. Drew and Emily call attention to the flaws in the current state of modern science. Emily and Drew discuss the Dana-Farber scandal, the cost/benefit of going to college, the do-or-die culture in science, and the lack of curiosity among journalists...

William Briggs

By William BriggsA new study came out that claimed intermittent fasting is bad for you. This shocked a lot of people. Here’s one of the hot headlines: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death“.Ninety one percent? Dude. That’s a lot. Makes it sound l...

Malcolm Kendrick

By Malcolm KendrickAs everyone knows, a placebo is an inactive ‘sugar’ pill. Except when it isn’t. Which is almost always. Here, from 2010, is an article about research on placebos carried out by Dr Beatric Golomb [1]."What rules are there about what goes into placebos?Despite carrying moniker...

Broken Science

March 07, 2024 commentary in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene and a documentary by the Health Physics Society.From corruption in governing bodies to deliberate misrepresentations by researchers, this series takes the first steps to correct the scientific record in the field of c...

Emily Kaplan

Februaury 28, 2024 episode of the Dr. Drew PodcastDr. Drew and Emily call attention to the flaws in the current state of modern science. Emily and Drew discuss the Dana-Farber scandal, the cost/benefit of going to college, the do-or-die culture in science, and the lack of curiosity among journalists...

William Briggs

By William BriggsA new study came out that claimed intermittent fasting is bad for you. This shocked a lot of people. Here’s one of the hot headlines: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death“.Ninety one percent? Dude. That’s a lot. Makes it sound l...

Emily Kaplan

On February 27th, BSI Co-Founder and CEO Emily Kaplan was interviewed by Dr. Ken Berry. During the livestream, the two discussed diabetes, misleading health studies, and issues with medical journalism.Ken D Berry, MD is a Family Physician, Speaker and Author based near Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. He ...

Russell Berger

By Russell BergerOn November 30th, JAMA Network Open published  Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins. The study has a lot of things going for it: A prestigious research team from Stanford Medical school, the growing popularity of vegan diets, and the novelty of id...

Broken Science

This editorial commentary by Gerd Gigerenzer and Julian Marewski discusses the dream of a universal method of inference in science. The great mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz dreamed of a universal calculus in which all ideas could be represented by symbols and discussed without bickering. He...

William Briggs

By William BriggsStick with me on this not-so-easy subject, because I’m going to reveal a trick used to make you “Follow the Science!”Belief is an act. Uncertainty is a state. Decision is a choice. Probability is a calculation. There is no difference between belief and decision in the sense th...

Broken Science

September 2012 book by Sharon Bertsch.Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores the controversial theorem of Bayes' rule, and the human obsessions surrounding it. She traces its discovery by an amateur mathematician in the 1740s through its development into roughly its modern form by French scientist Pierre ...

Emily Kaplan

https://youtu.be/CfIJjKEmrd4In this video Emily explains the difference between a Bayesian approach and a frequentist approach to analyzing statistics. A Bayesian analysis looks at prior probabilities combined with data to determine the probability that the hypothesis is true. A frequentist analysis...

Emily Kaplan

https://youtu.be/scSqDj0regUSimply put, a p-value is a measure of the likelihood that the results of a study are due to the hypothesis, and not simply a result of chance. It compares the “null hypothesis,” the idea that the thing being studied has no effect, vs the “alternative hypothesis,” ...

Emily Kaplan

On February 15th, Co-founder and CEO of The Broken Science Initiative, Emily Kaplan, went onto the B FIT Podcast with Connor Murphy. Connor Murphy is a celebrity trainer, Crossfit seminar staff, and trainer at Big Night Fitness.On the show Emily dives into the fundamentals of the initiative. From th...

Broken Science

Heuristic decision making refers to mental shortcuts or 'rules of thumb' used by individuals to make swift decisions, particularly under pressure or when there is a lack of detailed information. This type of thinking has been criticized as a shortcut, prone to bias, and “predictably irrational”....

Broken Science

Gerd Gigerenzer's paper criticizes the lack of attention paid to effect sizes and the undue emphasis on null hypothesis testing in research. Despite the American Psychological Association's recommendations, effect sizes are rarely reported, hindering the computation of statistical power in tests. It...

Malcolm Kendrick

By Malcolm KendrickMedicine has always been a highly conservative profession. It is both rigidly hierarchical and highly resistant to change. In large part because those at the top are perfectly happy with the status quo. People at the top usually are. It was the status quo they rode to the top of t...

William Briggs

By William BriggsA new study came out that claimed intermittent fasting is bad for you. This shocked a lot of people. Here’s one of the hot headlines: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death“.Ninety one percent? Dude. That’s a lot. Makes it sound l...

Malcolm Kendrick

By Malcolm KendrickAs everyone knows, a placebo is an inactive ‘sugar’ pill. Except when it isn’t. Which is almost always. Here, from 2010, is an article about research on placebos carried out by Dr Beatric Golomb [1]."What rules are there about what goes into placebos?Despite carrying moniker...

Broken Science

March 07, 2024 commentary in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene and a documentary by the Health Physics Society.From corruption in governing bodies to deliberate misrepresentations by researchers, this series takes the first steps to correct the scientific record in the field of c...

Emily Kaplan

Februaury 28, 2024 episode of the Dr. Drew PodcastDr. Drew and Emily call attention to the flaws in the current state of modern science. Emily and Drew discuss the Dana-Farber scandal, the cost/benefit of going to college, the do-or-die culture in science, and the lack of curiosity among journalists...