Bad Science- A Must Read

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is one of those books that should be on a universal list of books to be read by everyone. Preferably before leaving School.
The book is great fun and impossible to put down, you have to get more information as it is so hard to believe just how bad things can get. Do you want to know if homeopathy, vitamins and those detox pills really work?
This book is an eye opener, it deals with the use of poor, misleading or downright crooked research used by nutritionists, vitamin companies and large pharmaceutical companies to sell their product. These vary from amusing to serious fraud with consequences that slide from merely enhancing our general ignorance for profit to the rather more dramatic death by economic exploitation. Particularly in developing nations.
He goes into detail about the fake medical nonsense techniques used to convince the public of the incredible benefits of alternative medicines such as homeopathy and the new nutritionism, all without the least medical qualifications. The use of medical techniques such as research referencing and annotation to make poor or faked research look convincing whilst linking to absolute rubbish is laughable, but very destructive to real research and good scientific technique.
Ben Goldacre takes a cynical and deliberately laid back approach to these very serious matters because laughter is probably the only healthy response. He takes the mickey out of many figures that are so deserving of the attention. It is a shame that each does not have their own satirical website. There is enough material to maintain them.
The list of people covered varies from Gillian McKeith, a figure of fun who has made much money from absolute hogwash, to the rather more sinister characters whose cynicism and exploitation has to be read about in depth to fully understand.
This is a hugely entertaining book, but it deals with very serious issues, more cultural than scientific.
The new chapter previously withheld whilst the author and The Guardian fought off a shameful and expensive court case is particularly disturbing but enlightening. The lengths some vitamin companies will go to to push their product is simply frightening.
He takes a pop at the relationship between the big pharmaceutical companies and doctors and the press too. No one escapes his outraged sense of justice.
The media and PR do not escape lightly and much responsibility must be taken by the fourth estate, particularly television for promoting some ridiculous people as authority figures when they have plainly purchased their titles on the internet or worse still, in the same vein as King of Scotland General Idi Amin, awarded them to themselves.
See here for some research undertaken by the journalist Nick Davies and Cardiff University on the freedom of the press.The Quality and Independence of British Journalism.
Bad Science was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction and a Sunday Times top ten best seller. Mind you in the light of some of the credentials presented so fraudulently by some of the characters in the book, you would be forgiven for ignoring these and checking everything for yourself from now on. So buy the book
This is on our list of absolute must reads. Do not think, as the nutritionist (I am a clinical medical professor person with the website degree to prove it) said to the punter, just buy it, the book will get you thinking enough when you read it.
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is published by Harper Collins and available everywhere.
Read further on Ben Goldacre's own site