Ben Goldacre
Ben Goldacre
Ben Michael Goldacre is a British physician, academic and science writer. As of March 2015, he is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, part of the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is a founder of the AllTrials campaign to require open science practices in clinical trials...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
pain mean design
Just just because there are flaws in aircraft design that doesn't mean flying carpets exist.
teacher water arseholes
I'd like to submit to Bad Science my teacher who gave us a handout which says that 'Water is best absorbed by the body when provided in frequent small amounts.' What I want to know is this. If I drink too much in one go, will it leak out off my arsehole instead? Thank you. Anton.
motivation real inspiration
Real science is all about critically appraising the evidence for somebody else's position.
years use trials
If you put me in charge of the medical research budget, I would cancel all primary research, I would cancel all new trials, for just one year, and I would spend the money exclusively on making sure that we make the best possible use of the clinical evidence that we already have.
pain motivation inspiration
The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating things in the whole of medicine. It's not just about taking a pill, and your performance and your pain getting better. It's about our beliefs and expectations. It's about the cultural meaning of a treatment.
details transparency
Transparency and detail are everything in science.
leisure-activities talking people
I spend a lot of time talking to people who disagree with me - I would go so far as to say that it's my favourite leisure activity,
crossover people quite slightly tricks
There is actually quite a lot of crossover between the quacks and drug companies. They use the same tricks and tactics to bamboozle people into buying their pills, but drug firms can afford to use slightly more sophisticated versions.
academics basis cited ideal imagine lots might papers scientific stuff
In an ideal world, you might imagine that scientific papers were only cited by academics on the basis of their content. This might be true. But lots of other stuff can have an influence.
people argument reason
You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
motivation cancer inspiration
Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
play mind body
You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.
ideas blind-spots medicine
There is this peculiar blind spot in the culture of academic medicine around whether withholding trial results is research misconduct. People who work in any industry can reinforce each others' ideas about what is okay.
thinking littles sugar
Homeopathy pills are, after all, empty little sugar pills which seem to work, and so they embody [..] how we can be misled into thinking that any intervention is more effective than it really is.