Tag: science

people working in a call center

Time to flatten the curve of shoddy COVID scholarship

Last October, I wrote that COVID-19 had created a stampede of shoddy research. Little has changed in the interim. Putting all hands to the pump might feel appropriate in a crisis, but during a global public health emergency, rushing headlong into the scholarly frontline is anything but okay. Frankly, it is […]

person covered with gray blanket

No More Mr NICE Guy…

The newly released draft NICE guidelines for the management of “myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome” continue to cause a stir. And rightly so. The new guidelines not only repudiate a heretofore favoured treatment approach for a particular illness, they also threaten to discredit an entire (albeit quirky) branch of […]

The BMJ’s ambiguous editorial commitment to scientific rigour

Here is my letter to the BMJ. I think it is pretty self-explanatory (nonetheless, I have added some additional context below the fold): Date: Sep 11, 2019To: <Fiona Godlee>, Editor in Chief, BMJRE: BMJ’s scientifically and ethically indefensible decision about Bristol’s Lightning Process study Dear Dr Godlee, First of all, […]

Psychology in Crisis: My interview with the ‘Medical Error’ podcast

Here I am discussing psychology, the replication crisis, medical error, CFS/ME, the PACE Trial, political collapse, human extinction, and more… ‘Medical Error Interviews’ is a podcast out of Canada, hosted by Scott Simpson. See all the details, including all the episodes of ‘Medical Error Interviews’, on Podbean. You can also […]

“The Point of Psychology (and How it Gets Missed)”: Director’s cut

Okay, the official movie — featuring full slides and audio — has been made… Thanks to Chris Noone for the soundtrack (from the official PSI EGG talking-head version); background to the keynote as per here and here. As a reminder, the audience was a national conference of early career psychology graduates, the conference theme […]

Bandwagon latest: ‘Science news’ with tenuous World Cup relevance doing the rounds right now

1. Analyzing John Brooks’ Dream About Scoring the Winning Goal Source: Time.com, ‘HEALTH’ section (17 June) One-line summary:  A US soccer player scored a goal and then says he previously had a dream about doing so. So then, can your dreams predict or influence your future? Scientists say maybe or maybe not. By which they mean: […]