Bad Science

Name: Bad Science
Rating: 4.48421049118042 (95 reviews)

Ben Goldacre

Dec 2008 · HarperCollins UK

4.5

95 reviews

Ebook

352

Pages

Eligible

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About this ebook

Ben Goldacre’s wise and witty bestseller, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, lifts the lid on quack doctors, flaky statistics, scaremongering journalists and evil pharmaceutical corporations.

Since 2003 Dr Ben Goldacre has been exposing dodgy medical data in his popular Guardian column. In this eye-opening book he takes on the MMR hoax and misleading cosmetics ads, acupuncture and homeopathy, vitamins and mankind’s vexed relationship with all manner of ‘toxins’. Along the way, the self-confessed ‘Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General’ performs a successful detox on a Barbie doll, sees his dead cat become a certified nutritionist and probes the supposed medical qualifications of ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith.

Full spleen and satire, Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and ultimately alarming journey through the bad science we are fed daily by hacks and quacks.

Ratings and reviews

4.5

95 reviews

A Google user

March 18, 2012

This book goes into a lot of detail on how the pharma industry effectively lies to everyone in order to promote and sell their products, as well as a few other medical topics where things just aren't right. It will show you exactly why their experiments are biased and explain how a good experiment actually works, and even why completely negative results still need to be published! If you are at all interested in the medicine you use or the claims companies make about their products, this book is a must read

Aimee S

April 18, 2014

Goldacre takes us through a handful of infamous scientific stories demonstrating the corruption of the media and scientific industry. His analysis can seem blunt and brutal but he is honest with us and delivers the evidence(or lack of evidence) to us. This book enforces the message that we should always question what is being preached to us and that you don't have to be a genius to distinguish the facts from the fiction. Highly recommended for anybody with an interest in science.

8 people found this review helpful

Sergei Smagin

April 11, 2020

Awesome read Can't recommend enough. I usually make notes when I read and this book turned to bring me lots of them. Also, I've never seen such a furious tone in a book before, and I must say, It's quite charming.

5 people found this review helpful

About the author

Ben Goldacre is a doctor, writer, broadcaster and academic who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks. Bad Science reached Number One in the non-fiction charts, sold over 400,000 copies in the UK alone, and has been translated into 25 languages. He is 38 and lives in London.

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