Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780007240197
ISBN: 0007240198
Label: Fourth Estate Ltd
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate Ltd
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 01, 2008
Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
Studio: Fourth Estate Ltd

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Rating: - Important and informative, but smug and disorganised
I think this book is important and I'm glad I've read it. I certainly learnt a few things about medicine and the media from it. It's also easy to read and occasionally amusing. Unfortunately, I found the author self-important and smug, and the book's organisation chaotic. (No index!!!)

He has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about "humanities graduates". A very similar paragraph blaming them for many of the ills of media science appears several times in the book, and comes across as a ... Read More

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Rating: - If you feel you're being conned by scare stories . . . .
I bought this book because I thought it would be a good idea to have an antidote to all the scare stories we read in the media. I was not disappointed. The descriptions of how trials and research should be done were excellent and easy to read and understand. It really helps to counteract the headlines and shows you how to work out the facts behind the stories. The book is worth its price for the chapter on the placebo effect alone and if you wanted to know what happened to the MMR controversy ... Read More

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Rating: - Should be a standard School text book
This is not just a good read but also a really important subject - dumbing down of media led science reporting. I'll be giving it to some school age students for Christmas to encourage them see how science fact can be spun in papers/TV etc to give sensation led copy. I was lucky: I had an excellent science teacher in school (1970s - 80s) and was inspired to find out the background for myself behind every popular science or medical story. Great book.

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Rating: - Superb - Make sure you read this book
Bad Science cuts through the spin and misinformation we all read every day in newspapers and see on the TV regarding health issues. Ben explains how the high status given to science has been stolen by a variety of pseudo-scientific concepts like homeopathy and nutritionists. The media is taken to task for its sensation seeking headlines that help to create problems like the recent MMR hoax. Particularly amusing is Ben's explanation of journalist ignorance - "Unskilled and unaware of it". Mainstream ... Read More

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Rating: - Yes, but...
A book for cynical critical people, of whom I am one with much sympathy for his mission. After reading it, I feel even more cynical about almost everything I read in the media, but, unfortunately, also about this author. I didn't find it particularly funny, the written style was very clumsy; he came over as just as egotistical as the so-called experts he criticised. And considering he is so critical of others' referencing, it is a pity his is so inconsistent - could he not have used straight Harvard ... Read More

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