Bad Science

(Paperback)

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Shorlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

Longlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books

Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science were fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks
When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water and turning it brown, he thought hed 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 weekends immorality.

Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian and his book is 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. Satirical and amusing and unafraid to expose the ridiculous it provides the reader with the facts they need to differentiate the good from the bad.

Full of spleen, this is a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of bad science.

Reviews

From an expert with a mail-order PhD to debunking the myths of homeopathy, Ben Goldacre talking the reader through some notable cases and shows how to you dont need a science degree to spot bad science yourself. Independent (Book of the Year)

His book aims to teach us better, in the hope that one day we write less nonsense. Daily Telegraph (Book of the Year)

For sheer savagery, the illusion-destroying, joyous attack on the self-regarding, know-nothing orthodoxies of the modern middle classes, Bad Science can not be beaten. Youll laugh your head off, then throw all those expensive health foods in the bin. Trevor Philips, Observer (Book of the Year)

Unmissablelaying about himself in a froth of entirely justified indignation, Goldacre slams the mountebanks and bullshitters who misuse science. Few escape: drug companies, self-styled nutritionists, deluded researchers and journalists all get thoroughly duffed up. It is enormously enjoyable. The Times (Book of the Year)

Author Bio

Ben Goldacre studied Medicine at Oxford. He is 31 and now works full time for the NHS as an academic and hospital doctor, seeing patients and explaining difficult ideas to difficult people. He is the author of the 'Bad Science' column in the Guardian. During the past three years it has become one of the most popular columns in the paper, receiving hundreds of emails every week with tip-offs for stories. Ben also appears regularly on TV and radio commenting on cosmetics, adverts, scares and alternative therapies.