The Quackometer Blog – Experiments and Thoughts on Superstitious Health Beliefs

Sex and Gender

Science or Snake Oil: Will the NHS Puberty Blocker Trial Harm More Than It Helps?

In spring 2025, NHS England may launch its much-anticipated “Pathways” trial into puberty blockers, a £10.7 million endeavour led by King’s College London and backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This follows the Cass Review’s damning verdict on the thin evidence behind these drugs—gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists used to pause puberty in children with gender dysphoria—and a subsequent halt to their routine use in March 2024. With recruitment set to begin via England’s new regional gender services, the study promises answers where Cass found none. Yet, as The Quackometer has long cautioned, clinical trials can be fertile [read more...]

Law

The Illusion of Proof: Confirmation bias and the Lucy Letby Case

Conspiracy theorists fall victim to a fundamental misunderstanding of how to evaluate and synthesise evidence. It’s not that they believe despite a lack of evidence, but rather that they fail to recognise how the evidence [read more...]

featured

A Simple Challenge to Homeopaths

by Andy L in featured 288

Homeopaths are feeling under threat at the moment and are scrambling around wondering what to do about it. I think there are a number of things they could do: most importantly, they should better manage their own business by showing that they respect the boundaries of what they can reasonably [read more...]

featured

The Futility of Finding Physical Explanations for Homeopathy

by Andy L in featured 52

From the very first decades of homeopathy’s existence in the early 19th Century, mainstream scientists have dismissed its claims for one simple reason: the extremely dilute nature of the remedies. As Oliver Wendell Holmes remarked in 1842 “So much ridicule has been thrown upon the pretended powers of the minute [read more...]

The Muddling of the American Mind: Part I

23rd July, 2022 76

In a recent blog post on the web site Science Based Medicine, Steven Novella asks the question “What does the science actually say about biological sex?” His motivations are made quite clear in the opening [read more...]
On the existence of females

8th June, 2020 54
The Capture of Nature

3rd September, 2020 50
Breaking Down Cass Review Myths and Misconceptions: What You Need to Know: Part 1

14th April, 2024 29
Tribal Scepticism

3rd January, 2020 23

What Every Parent Should Know About Steiner-Waldorf Schools

2nd November, 2012 483

You may know my feelings about Steiner/Waldorf Schools*. Most importantly, that prospective parents are not being told about the occult foundations of the Steiner philosophy. You may think that the mystical, spiritual and esoteric movement [read more...]
Frome Steiner Academy: Absurd Educational Quackery

27th February, 2012 401
Steiner Schools: An Alternative to Education.

14th November, 2012 347
Steiner Academy Exeter: Misleading Choices

28th March, 2013 292
Steiner Academy Bristol, A Challenge: Be Open With Parents

8th January, 2013 252

The Magnetic Therapy Water Wand: A Debunking from History

8th June, 2010 19

The recent rain has ensured the last sniffles of hayfever have subsided. It has been a bad few days and the antihistamines may have made things a little more comfortable – but it is the [read more...]
John Wesley and The Origins of the Natural Health Movement

14th November, 2009 42
On the The Reckless Physicking of Amateur Females.

16th November, 2010 35
Of the Imagination, as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body

3rd June, 2011 9

Science or Snake Oil: Will the NHS Puberty Blocker Trial Harm More Than It Helps?

The Illusion of Proof: Confirmation bias and the Lucy Letby Case

RECENT

What would an ethical clinical trial into puberty blockers look like?

Breaking Down Cass Review Myths and Misconceptions: What You Need to Know: Part 2

Breaking Down Cass Review Myths and Misconceptions: What You Need to Know: Part 1

Brighton Sceptics and the Reece’s Pieces

Getting AI to write a Thesis on Transgender and Non-binary Archaeology.

The Muddling of the American Mind – Part II

The Muddling of the American Mind: Part I

On the Sex Deracination Gambit

The Decline and Fall of Science-based Medicine

A Simple Challenge to Homeopaths

The Futility of Finding Physical Explanations for Homeopathy

SEX AND GENDER

The Muddling of the American Mind: Part I

STEINER AND ANTHROPOSOPHY

What Every Parent Should Know About Steiner-Waldorf Schools

FROM HISTORY

The Magnetic Therapy Water Wand: A Debunking from History