Mike Hall is a software engineer and Doctor Who fan, not in that order. He is the producer and host of the long-running podcast Skeptics with a K, part of the organising committee for the award winning skeptical conference QED, and on the board of the Merseyside Skeptics Society.
Recent headlines claim we 'finally know' how placebos work, thanks to a trial that is little more than Pavlovian conditioning. No wonder the public is confused
Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer's research claims powerful mind-over-matter effects, based on small studies with implausible outcomes - we should be skeptical
The long-standing myth that The Simpson's has an uncanny ability to predict the future is just a case of viewers scouring archives to connect dots that aren't there
The practice of 'vabbing' - or 'vaginal dabbing' - claims that vaginal secretions contain pheremones that make women irresistable to potential partners, but science suggests otherwise
With energy prices rising and many worried consumers unable to heat their homes, products like Heatfiniti look to cash in on the crisis with bogus claims around cost savings
In praising the power of the placebo effect, the statistical sleuths at the BBC's More or Less cited small, subjective studies that have failed to replicate
Patients on placebo inhalers reported that they felt better, even though their lung capacity was objectively the same - this isn't an argument for placebo asthma treatments, but for objective measurements in clinical studies
