Science

Beware of commercial microbiome tests: how at-home testing can mislead consumers

Despite the marketing claims, research has found no evidence to suggest at-home microbiome tests offer reliable health insights

Are ‘gacha’ games and loot boxes merely gambling in disguise?

Gacha video games - where players pay real money for a chance at winning digital items - are a poorly regulated space that can become as exploitative as gambling

Overly simplistic headlines muddy the water around placebo effects and mislead the public

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

Racism is a real phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean that the idea of “biological race” is real

Just because some people will discriminate against others due to their appearance and racial identity, that doesn't make the notion of 'biological race' true.

From the archives: Hypnosis and the Occult

From the archives in 1990, H.B. Gibson debunks the links between hypnotism and the occult, and puts forward his own contemporary understanding of hypnotism

We shouldn’t fear a “zombie fungus”, like The Last of Us… but a threat from fungi is real

While a zombie-style fungal threat is incredibly unlikely, rising global temperatures mean we're increasingly at risk from a life-threatening fungal pathogen

The 2024 UK General Election came with lessons that skeptics should listen to

There have always been parties pushing fringe beliefs at elections, but Reform saw significant gains by courting the conspiracist vote - we need to pay attention

What does p-hacking really mean, and why is it a problem?

P-hacking, or massaging of trial data and analysis in order to present a statistically relevant finding, distorts the scientific literature, and over-promotes dubious discoveries
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