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Here is a rundown of the top stories in pseudoscience, paranormal and anomaly news from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News

The big news this past week was one of skeptical activism. Several blogs (including Bad Astronomy by former JREF president Phil Plait) spread the word about American Airlines allowing a promotion by the anti-vax group the Australian Vaccination Network. As a result, American Air was deluged with comments of those who were unhappy about their choice to give Meryl Dorey and her unscientific view a platform. By expressing the critical points that children’s lives were at stake and vaccination works, the public outcry did it’s job and they will not run the pieces</a>. Meryl then complained about censorship. In the newspapers.

Meanwhile, Canadian pediatricians are getting fed up with anti-vax parents and are telling them to leave.

A new University of B.C. study suggests analytical thinking can be harmful to religious faith.

UFO believers see another object orbiting the Sun in a new NASA image. Do you get the impression they just wait for these images to come out so they can go anomaly hunting?

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Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo in medicine.  

The problem with preclinical research? Or: A former pharma exec discovers the nature of science (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-problem-with-preclinical-research/ A recent article condemned the quality of current preclinical research. Science is messy but self-correcting: the process involves publishing results on the frontier of science, some of which are later disproven. Preclinical research can be improved, but blanket condemnation is unwarranted.  

Chiropractors as Family Doctors? No Way! (Harriet Hall) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/chiropractors-as-family-doctors-no-way/ Recent proposals to utilize chiropractors as primary care providers are misguided. Chiropractors are not equipped to fill that role safely or effectively.  

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Last Halloween at CSICON in New Orleans, it was announced that an asteroid discovered by skeptic and astronomer James McGaha had been named to honor CSI investigator Joe Nickell. And just this month two more asteroids were named for Australian science communicators and skeptics "Doctor Karl" Kruszelnicki and Adam Spencer. These three are actually the latest in a long series of asteroids that have been named for skeptics or skeptic organizations.

The complete list of asteroids named for skeptics (in alphabetical order by namesake) is as follows, with their discovery dates:

The numbers are assigned sequentially as asteroids are discovered and verified. The names honor individuals or organizations.

You may have noticed one odd anomaly in that list. Why is the asteroid named to honor CSICOP called Skepticus? That was because of a rule against using acronyms in naming astronomical bodies.

You can get a daily dose of the history of skepticism with JREF’s free Today in Skeptic History app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Or subscribe for a daily fact on Twitter or Facebook.

(This essay originally appeared in a slightly different form on Skepticality episode #124) 

Tim Farley is a Research Fellow for JREF.

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In my last post for this blog I discussed the fact that individual scientific studies are insufficient to establish a claim or phenomenon, and yet people often cite a single study as if it offers proof of their position. In order to really understand the status of a scientific claim, rather, you need to have some sense of the totality of relevant scientific research - the so-called scientific "literature."  

In this post, as promised, I will cover some basics as to how to interpret the published literature. This topic, however, requires some background discussion on the nature of expertise. Many scientific areas are highly specialized and require specific technical knowledge. This may become apparent when reading the technical literature - publications intended for the expert community, not the general public. They can often be incomprehensible to the general public, and not by design or to be elitist. Very specific concepts require very specific language to discuss properly, and so a technical jargon will typically develop in scientific fields.  

I often encounter this myself. Even as a physician I can find papers in medical specialties far from my own difficult to follow. In advanced fields outside of medicine I can be totally lost. This is, in fact, a good way to estimate your own knowledge in a field and your ability to grapple with the primary sources - papers discussing original research published in technical detail. If you are not fluent in the jargon, then don't assume you are fluent in the concepts.  

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Following our now ten year tradition, the James Randi Educational Foundation will once again invite proposals for short (15 minute) presentations on the Sunday morning of The Amazing Meeting in July.

The Sunday Morning Papers session of TAM was established to recognize new voices and ideas and shine on them the spotlight of the TAM community. If you have had success in communicating rational skepticism, teaching critical thinking, combating pseudoscience, or furthering the mission of JREF in some new and significant way, we want to hear from you!

Please follow the this link for an application and instructions for your 15 minute talk proposal

http://csufresno.edu/physics/rhall/jref/tam10p/papers_tam10.htm

I look forward to hearing from you all!

Ray Hall

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