The Latest Blogs
“Very Awkward at First” – Science Clash Finals Set, Coach Kennedy Returns, and the ‘Secular Seven’
March 27, 2023Greetings, heretics! How the devil are you? Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate National Science Appreciation Day yesterday, especially those who took the time to share their stories about the lifesaving power of science on social media. …
Misinformation and the (Big) Ideology Problem
March 23, 2023From wellness gurus to antivaxxers, there has always been a close connection between the embrace of bunk and personal identity. But the role of ideology as an engine of science-free misinformation seems to be intensifying, especially in the health sphere. For example, could you have guessed that the embrace of an antiparasitic drug, ivermectin, would …
The Ultimate Chupacabra Quiz!
March 22, 2023In honor of the new Netflix film Chupa (as in chupacabra)—which is embroiled in some embarrassing semi-scandal that could have been avoided had the producers consulted with me—I thought it was time to offer a chupacabra quiz. Though there’s the obviously fake computer-generated one in the movie (see above), it seems that every few months …
News & Announcements
The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future | Steven Novella on Skeptical Inquirer Presents, Wednesday, March 29
March 20, 2023Our predictions of the future are a wild fantasy, inextricably linked to our present hopes and fears, biases and ignorance. The best we can do is try to absorb the lessons from futurism’s checkered past, perhaps learning to do a little better. Our next Skeptical Inquirer Presents event on Wednesday, March 29, at 7:00 p.m. …
The Birth of the Science Communicator | Dave Farina on Skeptical Inquirer Presents, March 16
March 6, 2023What is a science communicator? The era of once-a-decade outliers like Carl Sagan is long gone. In the present day of internet-borne disinformation and science denial, science communication has emerged as a vibrant and painfully necessary field, with an army of scholars focusing their expertise exclusively on informing the public. On the next Skeptical Inquirer …
Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience | Dr. Joe Schwarcz on Skeptical Inquirer Presents, March 2
February 20, 2023We are in a crisis. A tsunami of misinformation and disinformation is threatening to engulf evidence-based science. While quackery ― loosely defined as the spread of false “knowledge,” often accompanied by various versions of “snake oil” ― is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as it …
