I will be doing a talk in Edinburgh this Thursday. Warm up act will be Richard Wiseman. See you there. #sitp

Andy LewisWhen?

Thursday, October 21 at 8:00PM

Where?

The Bongo Club
37 Holyrood Road
Edinburgh
EH8 8BA

Who?

Andy Lewis

What's the talk about?

The late eighteenth century was a very creative time for inventing new forms of quackery and many became quite wealthy on the back on their invention. Of these creations, it is perhaps only homeopathy that has survived virtually unchanged into the 21st century. The majority of alternative medicines available today have been invented and developed within living memory, despite claims of their origins in antiquity. 
 

What makes an alternative medicine successful? Why should homeopathy survive when the very popular tractors of Perkins have long since been forgotten? Could you have predicted this in 1800? Today, we have a new industry of quack devices protecting us from mobile phones. Should you invest in such enterprises?

 
In this talk, Andy will look at the factors that make pseudo-medicines thrive and why consumers and practitioners latch onto them. Importantly, we shall explore the implications of these views for regulation and protecting the public from delusional or fraudulent claims.

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