Technology
Turn Me On, Dead Man
What do the Beatles, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, Patricia Arquette and Michael Keaton all have in common?
Skeptic212 articles archived since 1845
The Sciences
The Feynman-Tufte Principle
A visual display of data should be simple enough to fit on the side of a van
Evolution
The Fossil Fallacy
Creationists' demand for fossils that represent "missing links" reveals a deep misunderstanding of science
Mind & Brain
Abducted!
Imaginary traumas are as terrifying as the real thing
The Sciences
Quantum Quackery
A surprise-hit film has renewed interest in applying quantum mechanics to consciousness, spirituality and human potential
The Sciences
Common Sense
Surprising new research shows that crowds are often smarter than individuals
The Sciences
Flying Carpets and Scientific Prayers
Scientific experiments claiming that distant intercessory prayer produces salubrious effects are deeply flawed
The Sciences
The Myth Is the Message
Yet another discovery of the lost continent of Atlantis shows why science and myth make uneasy bedfellows
Technology
Mustangs, Monists and Meaning
The dualist belief that body and soul are separate entities is natural, intuitive and with us from infancy. It is also very probably wrong
The Sciences
Miracle on Probability Street
The Law of Large Numbers guarantees that one-in-a-million miracles happen 295 times a day in America
The Sciences
God's Number Is Up
Among a heap of books claiming that science proves God's existence emerges one that computes a probability of 67 percent
The Sciences
Death by Theory
Attachment therapy is based on a pseudoscientific theory that, when put into practice, can be deadly
The Sciences
The Enchanted Glass
Francis Bacon and experimental psychologists show why the facts in science never just speak for themselves
The Sciences
Magic Water and Mencken's Maxim
Social critic H. L. Mencken offers a lesson on how to respond to outrageous pseudoscientific claims
The Sciences
None So Blind
Perceptual-blindness experiments challenge the validity of eyewitness testimony and the metaphor of memory as a video recording
The Sciences
A Bounty of Science
A new book reexamines the mutiny on the Bounty, but science offers a deeper account of its cause
Technology
Bunkum!
Broad-mindedness is a virtue when investigating extraordinary claims, but often they turn out to be pure bunk
The Sciences
What's the Harm?
Alternative medicine is not everything to gain and nothing to lose
The Sciences
Candle in the Dark
Instead of cursing the darkness of pseudoscience on television, light a candle with Cable Science Network
The Sciences
Remember the Six Billion
For millennia we have raged against the dying of the light. Can science save us from that good night?
