Tag: Science

• Noceboes? How Cute.

  I have always been fascinated by neologisms –new words that substitute for more commonly used ones. They can be clever, rude, or just plain silly, but often their point is to get noticed –or perhaps draw attention to their inventors. There was a time –before social media, at least- when we used to applaud people…

  gozzter

  May 2, 2018

  Uncategorized

  Alexandra Tinnermann, ethics, Functional MRI scanner, neologisms, noceboes, Pandora’s box, placebo effect, placeboes, Science, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, zero sum game

• Earthing Unearthed

  Sometimes I feel disconnected. It’s almost as if I have been traveling on a highway all my life, largely unaware of the myriad roads that emanate from it. Unaware of the different coloured horizons that have been hiding out there all along. Or is skulking sometimes a better descriptor? Every so often I come across…

  gozzter

  October 19, 2016

  Uncategorized

  barefoot walking, Carl Sagan, Critical Thinking, earthing, electrons, Hamlet, homeopathy, Karl Popper, philosophy, refutability in science, Science, Shakespeare, Skeptics Society, Wikiversity

• Scientific Fraud

  Science –whose Latin etymology denotes knowledge- started off as a branch of philosophy and gradually morphed into its present form. Recently, however, it seems to be resting on a progressively unstable foundation with the general public. By its very nature, Science accumulates its knowledge by induction: observations elicit explanations which suggest experiments designed to test…

  gozzter

  June 22, 2016

  Uncategorized

  Canadian Medical Association, certainty, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, fraud, inductive logic, refutability of science, religions, Science, Scientific method, Secretariat of Responsible Conduct of Research, Sisyphus, Susan Zimmerman, vaccinations and autism, Zulfiqar Bhutta

• The Science of Answering

  I suppose in this suspicious age, everything is open to scrutiny. But some things are examined at one’s own risk risk -like turning over a familiar log in the garden only to find unexpected and sinister-looking creatures lurking quietly beneath. This is fine, of course, but it can be hard to know what to do…

  gozzter

  November 7, 2015

  Uncategorized

  answers, change, chemical risks, conspiracy theories, dyspsareunia, Environmental Health Perspectives, estrogen replacement, Hamlet, listening, Macbeth, parabens, Science, suspicion

• Critical Thinking and Bullying

  A few weeks ago, a young woman came in to see me to have her first Pap smear. While I was taking a routine sexual history, she admitted she had recently been bullied online. I’m not even sure how the topic came up, but she didn’t seem very upset, so I asked her about it. “The guy was a real…

  gozzter

  October 2, 2014

  Uncategorized

  analysing the message, bullying, Carl Popper, causal chains, Confirmation bias, Critical Thinking, deconstructing, deductive reasoning, distancing oneself, falsifiability, inductive reasoning, judging, logic, magical thinking, Pap smear, questioning, Science, Scientific method, Scientific thinking, self esteem, validity, victimization