2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011

• 28 November : That BMJ review of Long Covid therapies does not show what it says it does
• 21 November : My submission on the new Canadian draft recommendations for Long Covid

• 12 July : The cries for help are getting louder. And that’s a good sign
• 3 July : “A science that does not allow opposing opinions abolishes knowledge.” Er, kind of
• 30 May : Getting it Right: Addressing Myths about the 2021 NICE Guideline for ME/CFS
• 29 May : Talking to David Tuller about dualism
• 8 March : Where I speak to colleagues in the Swedish parliament…
• 1 March : New book…
• 10 January : Eight (or more) logical fallacies in that paper bemoaning the new NICE guideline for ME/CFS
• 4 January : ME, Long Covid, and the History of Medical Stigma (Transcript)

• 19 December : ME, Long Covid, and the History of Medical Stigma (Podcast)
• 24 October : Another look at the new NICE guideline for ME/CFS
• 19 August : Why the IRFU’s transgender policy is an example of the ecological fallacy
• 28 July : Of course there is no monster in Loch Ness (despite what the university’s Press Office might want you to believe)
• 26 June : Why are transphobes so transphobic?
• 16 June : Medical haste, COVID-19, and the mythology of “Medically Unexplained Symptoms”
• 4 June : ‘Cancel culture’ paranoia and other right-wing hysterics reveal medical conservatism’s true colours
• 24 May : Authors defend statistical errors, editor sees no evil
• 19 March : The New NICE Guideline for ME/CFS (2021): Following the Science

• 25 December : Psychology, religion, and public policy
• 17 December : Will innumeracy cause this study to be retracted? Don’t count on it…
• 24 November : Psychogenic ME/CFS: Turning the Nostalgia Up to Eleven
• 11 November : No, that antibody study does *not* show that Long COVID is caused by “beliefs”
• 5 November : “The problem may well be that some of our treatments are too evidence based”
• 31 October : Self-styled medical leaders defend “neurolinguistic processing” as legit treatment for ME/CFS
• 24 October : New Treatment Guideline, Same Old Denialism
• 1 October : [Class Recording] Is Psychology a Science?
• 22 September : BMJ chooses face-saving over fact-checking
• 22 August : NICEXIT: Royal Colleges look to “take back control” of treatment standards
• 15 August : The new NICE Guideline for ME/CFS: Ten Questions Answered
• 10 August : Journalists covering ME/CFS: Don’t ask about the new NICE guideline, ask about the old one
• 9 August : How illnesses become psychologised: Long COVID, ME, and the ‘All-In-Your-Head’ cartel
• 3 August : Is it just me, or is the BMJ’s take on those NICE guideline committee resignations maybe a little biased?
• 18 June : Where the tragic happens
• 18 May : Paradigm Lost: Lessons for Long COVID
• 6 May : Time to flatten the curve of shoddy COVID scholarship
• 5 May : On risk perception and vaccine clots
• 10 April : Our response to that controversial study on CBT outcomes in chronic fatigue has now been formally published
• 9 April : Some psychiatrists still not getting it
• 6 April : All Aboard the Long COVID gravy train
• 29 March : Off the PACE and not NICE
• 26 March : Podcasting about Lockdowns, Vaccines, and “Following the Science”
• 3 March : Who’s more deluded, the conspiracy nuts or the journalists who dismiss them?
• 15 February : Apart from the sampling ambiguity, weak measurement, survivor bias, missing data, and lack of control group, the study wasn’t that bad
• 29 January : Beware the COVID-sceptic doctors
• 13 January : The Report into Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes: Bad history
• 7 January : Post-Trump Stress Disorder

• 23 December : On the psychology of (Covid) Christmas
• 22 December : Letter to the BMJ
• 19 December : Expert reaction to the BMJ editorial calling for the abandonment of standards
• 11 December : COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: Media round-up
• 4 December : Psychology’s exaggeration crisis
• 2 December : Human rights in a global pandemic
• 28 November : On COVID-19, the economy, mental health, and suicide
• 21 November : No More Mr NICE Guy…
• 10 November : Could this actually be happening?
• 7 November : Make Nostalgia Great Again
• 28 October : COVIDxHalloween: The Psychology of Wearing Masks
• 18 October : You’re so vain, you probably think this global pandemic is about you
• 13 October : Facebook page
• 11 October : Is the stampede of COVID-19 science encouraging substandard research?
• 5 October : COVID conspiracies and the psychology of vaccine hesitancy
• 3 October : Why conduct good research when you can just cock it all up?
• 1 September : The other pandemic
• 27 August : Two takes on the expensive, unproven, and childishly-named quackery known as the Lightning Process
• 27 July : Post-Covid syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and the recurring pseudoscience of mass hysteria
• 21 July : Things to do in Chernobyl when you’re alive
• 12 July : Covid-19, Psychology, and the Politics of Life-and-Death Science
• 6 June : “Proud to be maladjusted”
• 31 January : Why the British really voted for Brexit
• 29 January : Please don’t vote for racists. Vote AGAINST them

• 29 November : I get mail
• 14 October : “The Psychology of Brexit” is now available!
• 6 October : On “celebratory racism”
• 22 September : Fact-checking the racists: The psychological approach of Ireland’s alt-right
• 18 September : Michael Collins is the new Noel Grealish (who is the new Peter Casey (etc. (etc.)))
• 17 September : Podcasting Brexit
• 16 September : What the alt-right are privately saying about their “important work” in Oughterard
• 13 September : Oughterard
• 11 September : The BMJ’s ambiguous editorial commitment to scientific rigour
• 7 September : Psychology in Crisis: My interview with the ‘Medical Error’ podcast
• 6 September : I guess some core competencies are just more core than others
• 5 September : Brexit contingency-planning latest: Don’t ask me, ask God, minister testifies
• 4 September : Human Factors in ME/CFS research
• 19 August : New book “The Psychology of Brexit” now available to pre-order
• 26 April : The media and transphobia: How Christianity gets a free pass
• 20 April : *Yes* obstruction: ‘Active information avoidance’ and the Mueller Report
• 17 April : It’s ‘bogus argument’ time again, as Ireland’s right-wingers gear up for divorce referendum
• 16 April : If this is what the collapse of centrism looks like, then PLEASE give me more centrism
• 21 March : If you spend 20 years gaslighting your patients, perhaps you should think twice before accusing *them* of trolling *you*
• 23 February : Good news. Psychologists are not going anywhere. Ever
• 7 February : The HRA report does not exonerate the PACE trial, it merely confirms that its Research Ethics paperwork was in order

• 19 December : ‘Psychology of Christmas’ media round-up
• 14 December : Here is a video of my lecture on the PACE Trial controversy
• 6 December : The Psychology of Christmas
• 8 November : Psychology is (not?) fine
• 3 November : The Triumph of Eminence-Based Medicine
• 24 October : Forty-one international scientists have signed a declaration supporting Cochrane’s decision to withdraw its controversial review of exercise therapy in ME/CFS
• 23 October : The government have ordered a forensic excavation of the #TuamBabies site
• 22 October : Halloween MRI Special: Guts, Brain, Skeleton, etc (in fact, *my* guts, brain, skeleton, etc)
• 22 October : ‘Psychology in Crisis’ is now available
• 20 October : Sometimes I feed the trolls
• 15 October : Blasphemers of the world, unite
• 27 August : At the #TuamBabies silent vigil: A photo essay
• 24 July : So I went to the Tuam Babies meeting to have my say, and then I realised I shouldn’t have one
• 22 June : I want to propose a new “Moral Panic Disorder” diagnosis to deal with all this hysteria about gaming and screen time
• 2 June : In two minutes, these (British) Gogglebox viewers produced a more cogent analysis of the Irish referendum result than the entire mainstream Irish media have managed in seven days
• 27 May : Those oh-so-convincing anti-repeal arguments re-capped (Greatest Hits version)
• 26 May : It’s official: Ireland’s abortion ban repealed by popular vote
• 26 May : This. Just this.
• 25 May : Looks like I should have gone to press with my “populist landslide” prediction. Exit poll suggests Ireland has well and truly CRUSHED its abortion ban!
• 25 May : Ireland is voting in its abortion referendum and this is on the FRONT PAGE of its leading national newspaper
• 23 May : Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names are the go-to propaganda tool of unreconstructed fascists
• 15 May : If nobody can lie, then truth ceases to exist
• 11 May : This pro-life activist has a foolproof plan to reduce abortion numbers, and it involves only a *little* racism
• 11 May : This is on tomorrow, in which I talk about diversity and stuff (see how effortlessly I communicate with the lay public)
• 9 May : Begging-the-question, conjecture, anecdote, false equivalence, and a non sequitur: those five reasons for raising the Digital Age of Consent
• 8 May : Reproductive rights in Ireland will lead to “normalisation of sex slavery”, “euthanasia”, and “the killing of political opponents”, according to local councillor who is not exaggerating at all
• 1 May : I will be attempting to “Move psychological science forward” in Nottingham on Wednesday night
• 1 May : John Taylor is definitely NOT a racist 😉
• 29 April : Why is reminding everyone of Trump’s “Grab ’em” comments suddenly risqué?
• 27 April : So apparently George Soros “can’t stand” Ireland’s anti-abortion clause because, well, obvs
• 19 April : It’s the 21st century and Irish parliamentarians still want priests in charge of sex education
• 14 April : Ten years on and, quelle surprise, that child-abusing EU dystopia hasn’t happened (yet)
• 5 April : “I just decided to just Google what the Bible says about vaccinations…”
• 28 March : Gee, I don’t know, is it just me, or could this infographic possibly be a little gender-biased?
• 23 March : Trump iffy re Bolton’s mustache, but apparently okay with the lying
• 22 March : “I wish Marie Louise O’Donnell would stay away from politics”
• 19 March : Jordan Peterson’s re-heated obscurantism
• 16 March : Dead man walking. And breathing. And appealing (unsuccessfully) against being declared ‘dead’
• 16 March : Pence photographed with gay man before taking him to private room for secret rendezvous
• 16 March : Um Starbucks, could you not?
• 14 March : Stephen Hawking RIP
• 14 March : Stephen Hawking RIP
• 13 March : Donald Trump is a true Belieber
• 12 March : Man who introduced topless Irish dancing in the 1990s bemoans sartorial inelegance of today’s youth
• 10 March : Question: How deranged are the NRA? Answer: *This* deranged…
• 28 February : It was kind of funny until they mentioned “bullet crowns”
• 27 February : Right here is where you start paying. In sweat…
• 21 February : Standing up for Bright Club
• 8 February : My ‘Montgomery J. Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence’ has finally arrived (Update: Donations urgently required)
• 6 February : I went to the Natural History Museum in Dublin, and took some pictures
• 5 February : Go check out ‘NotTheScienceBit.net’
• 5 February : Argument over toilet breaks down on (civil war) political lines
• 2 February : Brian thinks chicken pox is normal, Harper is confused
• 2 February : Microsoft pushes boundaries of keyboard design, at expense of user sanity
• 26 January : Are you an exorcist? If so, call this number
• 25 January : Anti-abortion parliamentarians avoid debate by hiding at the back of the room
• 24 January : This is another test post
• 24 January : This is a test post

• 7 July : No, no, no, no, no

• 23 August : “Are psychics the new psychologists?”
• 26 May : Rethinking Psychology in Cork
• 6 May : World tour continues
• 4 May : The dead hand of democracy
• 1 May : That story on sex differences in the brain, line by line
• 1 April : Todd Akin’s empirical question
• 21 March : ‘Rethinking Psychology’ is now available
• 26 February : This new European-wide public science engagement initiative is worth a look
• 9 February : Political science
• 1 February : On alcohol guidelines and social desirability
• 5 January : Who let the dogmas out?

• 20 October : It’s Crazy-Amazon-Algorithm time again!
• 2 October : It would be funny if it were true that 11% of Americans think HTML is an STD. But it isn’t. (True, that is. Or an STD.)
• 28 September : Not Safe For Work…
• 24 September : Attractive women latest: New findings
• 6 September : The following blog post contains references to trigger warnings that attention-seeking contrarians may find upsetting
• 1 August : Why ‘Inside Out’ is kind of interesting
• 27 March : What’s the deal with that Swiss government homeopathy report?
• 23 March : “Life Matters” (Because it just does)
• 20 March : Eclipsetography 101
• 8 March : “The Point of Psychology (and How it Gets Missed)”: Director’s cut
• 1 March : Regarding the point of psychology…
• 11 February : Where Waldo is (or, The science behind why journalists now think there is a science to be had behind everything)
• 3 February : Surprisingly, *all* these news stories are genuine
• 15 January : Forthcoming: “The Point of Psychology (and How it Gets Missed)”
• 9 January : Some pieces and bits

• 29 November : There’s not much point complaining about the science in Interstellar
• 30 October : Forthcoming: “Adventures in Science Communication”
• 27 October : What ‘Science By Press Conference’ looks like
• 3 October : Pareidolia special: “Farmer denies wrongdoing as goat born with human face” (Spoiler: Not really human face)
• 30 August : I’m not saying Greenfield’s a pseudoscientist. I point to her pseudoscientific reasoning. That is all
• 29 July : That story on sex differences in the brain, line by line
• 23 July : My battle against dry eye: I never thought things would get *this* bad…
• 11 July : ‘Miracle’ cure removes cancer, HIV, autism. By killing you
• 25 June : Suarez: Nature or nurture? BBC expert unable to specify, quoted extensively nonetheless
• 24 June : I like TBUTs and I cannot lie
• 18 June : Bandwagon latest: ‘Science news’ with tenuous World Cup relevance doing the rounds right now
• 24 May : Neanderthal man is 150 years old today, and Irish (kind of)
• 21 May : Breaking: UFO not flying, not unidentified, still an object
• 5 May : Marriage causes germs (kind of)
• 1 May : Results being “due to” causes somehow doesn’t imply causality
• 25 April : White = lovely = handsome
• 18 April : Keep away from camels; crowds (of humans) okay
• 10 April : Ukraine, where *are* you?
• 10 April : “How to Not Die”
• 5 April : Einstein = Mylie Cyrus squared. Or something
• 29 March : The homeopathic drugs DO work. Because they’re drugs
• 25 March : True that
• 23 March : The passengers on MH370 deserve better than this
• 16 March : Stop Press: Some kids are crap at computer games, one chimp is not
• 12 March : Won’t somebody *please* think of the validity?
• 6 March : Telling parents how vaccines are safe makes them *less* likely to vaccinate their kids
• 5 March : “Should we ditch the meal and go out with these boys?”
• 2 March : Just a few (i.e. 120) “gibberish” research papers redacted
• 1 March : New Zambia soccer jersey features spermatozoa design, presumably not on purpose
• 27 February : ‘Science Diet.’ You know, for geeks
• 25 February : Po Chai Pills: May contain stuff, etc.
• 22 February : Who cares about these darned rabbits?
• 21 February : Being bitten by a cat causellates depression
• 19 February : How to Survive a Plane Crash (Non-survival also a possibility)
• 16 February : Half-full glass latest: Americans beginning to accept heliocentrism
• 15 February : “Adultery could save your marriage”, or “How to churn out science news by riffing on Valentine’s Day”
• 13 February : Polarity. It’s a useful concept
• 9 February : How good is Google’s semantic processing of our dumb questions?
• 7 February : Come back ‘Weekly World News’, all is forgiven
• 7 February : Why give penguins antidepressants when they don’t even work?
• 6 February : Fretting about Twitter is eroding this guy’s ability to think for himself
• 3 February : So I got this email from Noam Chomsky today, looking for my opinion…
• 31 January : “On Correlations and Bias”
• 30 January : What (non-Greek) scientists say
• 27 January : ‘Smart bra’ only works if you’re stupid enough to believe it
• 25 January : Science news latest: Adam and Eve “real”, Noah’s Ark “actually round”
• 24 January : Favourites List (24.01.14)
• 22 January : Scientists now working on the perfect joke (Not a joke)
• 21 January : Zoology special: Entirely justified post featuring talking squirrel
• 20 January : Reverse the Earth’s rotation? I’d want to get off
• 18 January : All-natural produce is full of (eek!) chemicals!
• 18 January : Namaste!
• 17 January : Favourites List (17.01.14)
• 16 January : Sports drink ad fuels complaints, producer ordered to water down claim
• 14 January : Aliens latest: Iran claims US run by extra-terrestrial Nazis, Washington Post frets about foreign relations
• 13 January : Women in science <3 pink! XXX
• 13 January : The Death of a Disease: India Eradicates Polio
• 11 January : “Scientists distort the publication process, not editors”
• 10 January : Blame Canada (for those extra-terrestrials walking among us)
• 9 January : “Polar vortex”? That’s what they WANT you to believe…
• 8 January : Evidence for time travel on Twitter is not there, unsurprisingly
• 6 January : Top Ten Popular Posts on The Science Bit, 2013
• 3 January : Reading this can damage your health
• 2 January : Trajectory of poop and wee is non-random. I knew it!

• 30 December : Yes, it’s a list! Five Profoundest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2013
• 26 December : NSFW? Oh, go on then
• 23 December : Snakes, ladders…everyone’s a winner!
• 20 December : My kingdom for a zorse (kind of)
• 18 December : »Yuletide Archive: Scientific advice for Christmas (Original Soundtrack), Part 2
• 18 December : »Yuletide Archive: Christmas–When will the madness end?!
• 18 December : »Yuletide Archive: Scientific advice for Christmas (Original Soundtrack), Part 1
• 18 December : »Yuletide Archive: “Insert Yuletide Pun Here”
• 6 December : Embarrassing scenes from science history: Apartheid in ’85 “not all bad”…methodologically speaking
• 29 November : Favourites List (29.11.13)
• 22 November : Favourites List (22.11.13)
• 11 November : Now THIS really *is* in the genes
• 28 October : Halloween MRI Special: Guts, Brain, Skeleton, etc (in fact, *my* guts, brain, skeleton, etc)
• 27 September : A long and tedious blog post about scientific publishing
• 15 July : Knowing me, knowing you (Eureka!)
• 6 July : Sex + Everlasting life = Science!
• 18 April : New research reveals same findings as old research
• 13 April : How to predict the future
• 8 April : American Psychological Association promotes pseudotherapies. Again.
• 4 April : Forthcoming: Master of Delusion
• 1 April : Web sight
• 19 March : “Psychology’s Starting Positions”
• 16 March : Peurile? Moi?
• 11 February : Forthcoming: On value systems, science, and psychology
• 1 February : Bad things are bad for you. As are good things.
• 1 February : “Psychology’s one-sided coin”
• 19 January : Correlation? Causation? YOU decide! (It’s as good an approach as any…)
• 16 January : New rules for cosmetics advertising: Must contain science?
• 16 January : Forthcoming: Psychology’s optimistic bias and the undermining of science
• 10 January : This picture’s so hilarious, I thought I’d post it to my blog
• 2 January : Overweight people have lower death risk…#yesterdaysnewstoday
• 2 January : Pseudoscience class. For free!

• 31 December : Beware the number ‘13’ (Official Government Advice)
• 18 December : Christmas: When will the madness end?!
• 15 December : Keeping it light
• 17 November : At last: “Science Bit–The MOVIE!”
• 3 November : Chief Scientific Advisor gets the chop: Getting DNA backwards not the reason
• 29 October : Obligatory Halloween tie-in: Ghost spotted at football match actually a man
• 29 October : To coin a phrase…
• 22 September : Guess what: Cancer vaccines don’t cause cancer
• 22 August : Todd Akin’s empirical question
• 11 August : Quick media round-up is quick
• 16 July : Be careful where you put that paywall
• 30 May : Are conservatives less intelligent? Let’s ask a liberal…
• 29 May : Forthcoming: On ‘The Written Word’
• 28 May : Remember, there are no right answers…
• 21 May : Working the crowd
• 12 May : Galway nuked, radiation fireball blasts Athlone 🙁
• 7 May : Headline-spectrum of the day: Dino-apocalypse by ‘wind’
• 3 May : Is there actually evidence for anti-ageing creams?
• 1 May : Once more, with feeling: ‘Weather’ is NOT ‘climate’
• 27 April : Euphemistic congress
• 24 April : Aside: More on the science of college exams
• 23 April : Water on the brain
• 20 April : If it smells right, do it/him/her
• 13 April : Homeopathy, vaccination, autism: Together again
• 7 April : Cancer: Misinformation is a risk factor too
• 2 April : Happy Meals make you unhappy? Not so fast…
• 27 March : Chocolate keeps you thin? Fat chance!
• 23 March : I’ve decided to do my bit for homeopathy awareness…
• 19 February : Personality goes a long way…toward making you sick
• 17 February : One year in: The Science Bit’s greatest hits
• 13 February : Want to lose weight? Hint: Do NOT eat chocolate cake
• 8 February : How to argue illogically: Tony’s ten top tips
• 6 February : Scientific literacy on the rise (Must put a stop to that then…)
• 3 February : The costs of complementary medicine
• 1 February : L’Oréal are at it again
• 25 January : EXCLUSIVE: Britain facing boom in dodgy surveys
• 21 January : It’s official! Internet overuse causes brain damage! Oh wait…no, it doesn’t…
• 13 January : “Atheists die first”?
• 7 January : That sensational Kindle bargain: UPDATE (includes rant)

• 21 December : Scientific advice for Christmas (Original Soundtrack), Part 2
• 21 December : Archive: “Insert Yuletide Pun Here”
• 18 December : Are Cambridge University Press now promoting Scientology?
• 15 December : Scientific advice for Christmas (Original Soundtrack), Part 1
• 6 December : The Science of Misunderstanding
• 25 November : Let’s all laugh at this guy, and his ignorance
• 19 November : Forthcoming: Cork Skeptics in the Castle…
• 7 November : Who let the pseudoscientists out?
• 31 October : Seven billion Earthlings: So what’s the problem?
• 7 October : What women want…to be exploited by capitalists
• 18 September : Kindle bargain: Whopping discount on science publishing sensation!
• 26 August : “Marriage saves lives!” (Well, it has a nice ring to it…)
• 18 August : No, you are NOT worth it
• 11 August : Shock! ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is scientifically implausible
• 10 August : “Extraordinary people, ordinary evidence”
• 5 August : See no evil, hear no evil…
• 28 July : Six odd Irish UFO sightings
• 14 July : Big fat liars
• 7 July : Floss for fertility? Really?
• 30 June : An age-old problem: Public relations as science
• 23 June : Stop the spread of the ecological fallacy
• 16 June : Wake up and smell the…woahhh!
• 11 June : Sit down while I explain…
• 1 June : This week’s carcinogen: Your mobile phone
• 26 May : Why is this paper still cited?
• 16 May : Talking science with Scibernia
• 13 May : “Racecardgate” on Storify
• 12 May : On your breast behaviour
• 8 May : When correlation does not imply “casualness”
• 6 May : A study not worth its salt?
• 3 May : It’s true, college is a rat race
• 26 April : Towards a quantum Theory of Everything (including dirty dishes)
• 25 April : Politico.ie covers “The Babel Fish”
• 21 April : The Babel Fish Dilemma: Talking Science with Non-Scientists
• 12 April : Alcohol causes cancer? If you assume so, yes
• 4 April : “Atheists die first”: CNN’s “expert” fights back
• 30 March : A fishy tale: Omega-3, Alzheimer’s, and IQ
• 24 March : Superfast “supermoon” U-turn by the Daily Mail
• 23 March : “Radiation is good for Japan”: Coulter’s case dissected
• 18 March : Reiki, cancer, and the problem of informed consent
• 15 March : When is a nuclear meltdown not a nuclear meltdown?
• 11 March : Can geography affect depression treatment?
• 8 March : The Irish Times: Promoting homeopathy, endangering children?
• 7 March : The BMA’s dodgy claim about British GPs and CAM
• 4 March : Right-wingers are better looking, study doesn’t show
• 2 March : How not to perform genetic engineering
• 1 March : The science of tea: News-reporting as PR
• 26 February : “Pregnant thanks to acupuncture”
• 24 February : ‘Science News’ and Football: Together at last
• 24 February : Do polling locations influence election outcomes?
• 22 February : “Menopause relief: Do not use if pregnant”
• 21 February : Emergency contraception: Pragmatics, politics, and (just) a little science
• 20 February : Views on the Homeopathic Emergency Room
• 19 February : Breast milk, genes, and IQ
• 18 February : Football manager Ian Dowie, a loss to chemical engineering?
• 18 February : On jargon
• 18 February : Creation myth…
• 18 February : Welcome!