Biomedical Scientist Answers Pseudoscience Questions From Twitter

May 28, 2024 8:02 PM

Immunologist Dr. Andrea Love does quick Q&A addressing a variety of pseudoscience claims as part of the Wired Tech Support series.

A handy quick rundown on some common ideas and misconceptions.

posted by 2N2222 (7 comments total)

I appreciate this, but also recognize that many who would benefit from this talk, including many of the contributors of tweets, will just see it as What They Want You to Believe, etc. People who distrust medicine, and science in general, seem to be in a trap of no escaping.
posted by argybarg at 9:10 PM on May 28 [3 favorites]

The embedded ad I'm being served before the video is a weird pseudoscience PEAS WILL KILL YOU scam.. ):
posted by latkes at 10:11 PM on May 28 [2 favorites]

I think they've all been sited on here before in years past, but see also Quackwatch (and related "Watch" sites) from the Center For Inquiry founded by famed skeptics Paul Kurtz, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, B. F. Skinner, Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, and James Randi. Also the peripherally related Skeptic's Dictionary.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 3:56 AM on May 29 [1 favorite]

The Center For Inquiry seems to have had their account suspended. The Canadian link still works though.
posted by CynicalKnight at 4:17 AM on May 29 [2 favorites]

My only complaint is that when she started the bit about supplements and mentioned people taking vitamin C when feeling a cold or flu coming on, I thought she was going to deliver a Linus Pauling smack down.
posted by house-goblin at 6:26 AM on May 29

The Center for Inquiry link (not the Canadian one) works for me just fine.
posted by cooker girl at 7:15 AM on May 29 [2 favorites]

Carl Sagan Explains How the Ancient Greeks, Using Reason & Math, Discovered That the Earth Isn’t Flat Over 2,000 Years Ago [4 minute YouTube via OpenCulture]
posted by neuron at 12:46 PM on May 29 [1 favorite]