Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience
Let the one and only Dr. Joe battle pseudoscience and cast a life preserver out to all those drowning in a sea of misinformation

“Ultimately, the author successfully demonstrates how claims should be queried and analyzed before they are accepted.” — Library Journal

We are in a crisis. A tsunami of misinformation and disinformation is threatening to engulf evidence-based science. While quackery — loosely defined as the spread of false “knowledge,” often accompanied by various versions of “snake oil” — is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today. COVID-19 has unleashed an unprecedented flurry of destructive information that has fueled vaccine hesitancy and has steered people toward unproven therapies. Conspiracy theorists have served up a distasteful menu of twisted facts that create distrust in science.

In Quack Quack, Dr. Joe Schwarcz, who has been battling flimflam for decades, focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation.
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Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience
Let the one and only Dr. Joe battle pseudoscience and cast a life preserver out to all those drowning in a sea of misinformation

“Ultimately, the author successfully demonstrates how claims should be queried and analyzed before they are accepted.” — Library Journal

We are in a crisis. A tsunami of misinformation and disinformation is threatening to engulf evidence-based science. While quackery — loosely defined as the spread of false “knowledge,” often accompanied by various versions of “snake oil” — is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today. COVID-19 has unleashed an unprecedented flurry of destructive information that has fueled vaccine hesitancy and has steered people toward unproven therapies. Conspiracy theorists have served up a distasteful menu of twisted facts that create distrust in science.

In Quack Quack, Dr. Joe Schwarcz, who has been battling flimflam for decades, focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation.
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Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience

Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience

by Joe Schwarcz
Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience

Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience

by Joe Schwarcz

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$19.95 
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Overview

Let the one and only Dr. Joe battle pseudoscience and cast a life preserver out to all those drowning in a sea of misinformation

“Ultimately, the author successfully demonstrates how claims should be queried and analyzed before they are accepted.” — Library Journal

We are in a crisis. A tsunami of misinformation and disinformation is threatening to engulf evidence-based science. While quackery — loosely defined as the spread of false “knowledge,” often accompanied by various versions of “snake oil” — is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today. COVID-19 has unleashed an unprecedented flurry of destructive information that has fueled vaccine hesitancy and has steered people toward unproven therapies. Conspiracy theorists have served up a distasteful menu of twisted facts that create distrust in science.

In Quack Quack, Dr. Joe Schwarcz, who has been battling flimflam for decades, focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781770416581
Publisher: ECW Press
Publication date: 09/27/2022
Edition description: No Edition
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile: 1170L (what's this?)

About the Author

Dr. Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, which has the mission of separating sense from nonsense. He hosts a radio show, appears on television, writes a regular newspaper column, and has authored 18 bestsellers. Dr. Joe is also an amateur magician and lives in Montreal, QC.

Read an Excerpt

I’ve often been asked about who sparked my enthusiasm, some would say obsession, for separating sense from nonsense. That credit goes to three individuals, two real and one fictional: Harry Houdini with his exposés of the antics of mediums, James Randi with his tireless efforts to unmask charlatans and promote critical thinking, and Sherlock Holmes with his emphasis on coming to conclusions only if they are supported by facts.

I was introduced to magic at a young age by a performer at a birthday party and was intrigued enough to start reading about the subject. You do not have to delve deeply into the field before encountering Houdini, a man whose name to this day is virtually synonymous with magic. While I was taken with his exploits on the stage, my attention was also drawn to Houdini’s crusade against charlatans who were using conjuring tricks to convince the gullible that they were communicating with the spirit world. The extent to which some people would go to fool others was an eye-opener for me. And very disturbing.

Having become acquainted with the bizarre Conan Doyle–Houdini friendship, I was stimulated to start reading the Sherlock Holmes stories and became enthralled with the detective’s emphasis on making scientific observations and “cause and effect” conclusions. The first story I read was “A Scandal in Bohemia,” where I would come across a Holmes quote that I would reference throughout my life: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Throughout my career, much to my dismay, I discovered that not everyone abides by this dictum. And my archenemy, pseudoscience, rears its ugly head when facts are tortured until they fit some pet theory.

Over the last forty plus decades I’ve encountered numerous claims of paranormal abilities, hoaxes, miraculous cancer cures, and devices to diagnose or treat disease, all of which fall under the pseudoscience umbrella. In this collection, I will try to provide a taste of the widespread nonsensical beliefs I have encountered and hope to convince you of the importance of separating sense from nonsense. Through my public lectures, radio shows, and various media appearances I have also come across a host of organizations and individuals that engage in dishonest practices and claim to have some special knowledge or skill that they do not actually possess. These are the “quacks.” Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Quack Quack 1

Pseudoscience 4

Snake Oil 6

Spirits of Salt 9

Medicine Shows 11

Modernizing Mountebanks 15

Poking into the Puke Weed Doctor 18

The Chew-Chew and Do-Do Man 21

Insert Yogurt Where? 25

Dinshah and the Spectro-Chrome 28

Electroquackery 32

The Prince of Humbug 35

McFadden and Physical Culture 38

Getting Steinached 41

The Dean of Quacks 44

Cold Showers and Warm Baths 47

A Rabbit out of a Hat 50

Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy 52

Perkins Tractors 56

Iridology and Craniosacral Therapy 58

Alkaline Nonsense 61

Spoon-Bending Fiasco 64

Quack Products 67

Believing the Unbelievable 69

Encountering a "Healer" 72

Forceful Sole Searching 76

Ear Candles 80

Alpha Spin Can Make Your Head Spin 83

Email Warnings 85

Health Food Store Follies 88

Jilly Juice 91

Cancer and Carny Tricks 94

Trepanation 97

Borba's Nonsense 100

The Gerson Folly 102

Miracle Mineral Solution Is a Nightmare 105

Brace Yourself 109

No Magic in Quack Cancer Treatments 111

The Detox Scam 114

Yikes! I'm Infested! 117

Graviola Poppycock 120

The Healing Code 123

Getting Down to Earth 126

Cure Your Arthritis … Really? 128

The Saga of Uri Geller 132

I'll Pass on Autourine Therapy 136

Moonbeams 139

Natural Fallacies 142

The Curious "Science" of Oscillococcinum 144

Popeye's Folly 147

Breatharians and Nutritarians 152

Bitterness about Sugar 155

A Look at Braco the Gazer 158

Celebrities and Cerebral Claptrap 161

The Myth of "Detox" 163

Double Helix Water 167

Dunning-Kruger 171

Medical Medium 174

Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes 178

Bee Pollen and the Office of Alternative Medicine 181

Spoonk 184

Sylvia Browne 187

The Water Revitalizer 190

Where's the Aura, Asks Young Emily Rosa 193

Infomercials Provide Slanted Science 197

Diagnosing Pathological Science 199

Putting Pimat's Health Claims to Bed 203

Chemical-Free Is Not a Good Deal 206

Jamie Oliver Cooks Up Some Nonsense 209

A Treatment for Chemophobia 212

Raw Water 214

"The People's Chemist" 216

Alternative Medicine 219

Some Views on Dealing with Information and Misinformation 227

Index 232

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