Bad science: quacks, hacks, and big pharma flacks by Ben Goldacre. 288 p.
For a lot of people, "science" has come to mean that someone in a white coat with the title "Doctor" spews big words and shows you incomprehensible charts to explain something you're too stupid to understand, so you have to take their word for it. The media is complicit by dumbing down and misreporting a lot of stuff. But if people were properly educated in how to understand basic science--how to tell whether a study is well designed, or data are being obfuscated, or the researcher's credentials are worthless, or a claim is logically ridiculous--then ordinary people would be much better informed. Goldacre is particularly incensed by those who try to "sciencize" common sense so that people feel they have to pay experts a lot of money obtain it. Goldacre provides tools that anyone can use to evaluate medical and scientific information so that you can weed out the bullshit from the useful stuff. An excellent book, easy to read and enjoyably snarky in places. I'm not articulating well, but I encourage everyone to read this book.
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