Bad Science - Ben Goldacre

Who thought that a rebel scientist could write an entertaining book? But here it is, Bad Science, in all its paperback glory.

First up, let me be clear: Ben Goldacre is not a person against simple, logical things which promote good living. He fully advocates things like exercise and a balanced diet and abhors smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. What he has a problem with, to generalize, are people who claim outrageous things under the pretext of science. And that, as any common man would be vaguely aware, is so common place that it’s hard to discern the good science from the bad.

The writer starts with relatively harmless hoaxes like brain gym, a concept apparently prevalent in toddlers-schools in UK, and some strange, detoxifying foot massager. And then ups his ante to take on homeopathy. I could say he got personal. I have been on homeopathy medicine all my life. As of this moment, I have a bottle of a medicine called Cory-C, which is a clear liquid to be consumed orally, for curing common cold. I have been having it for 10 years now. It hasn’t helped my cold one bit. But I continue having it. But that’s because it tastes exactly like Vodka. I love this medicine!

Then we go on to crazy nutritionists, pill peddlers, and even modern medicine. The extent of domains he covers itself should convince you that he is not for or against anything as a concept in particular. The only thing Ben Goldacre relentlessly demands through the book is a systematic, honest search for cures for ailments of the human race. He constantly points out the role of the insensitive and ill-informed media, and at times ruling political leaders, for creating mass hysteria or hype about things that, at best, do not warrant any attention, and at worse, cause needless deaths in thousands. The AIDS fiasco in South Africa being the case in point; that one chapter, much more than the MMR episode that Ben Goldacre seems so passionate about, highlights the grimness and far reaching effect of “Bad Science”. Ben Goldacre writes that if he were not writing a light, humorous book, he would have been really, really angry. I couldn’t help feeling angry even though it was a light, humorous book that I was reading.

The best chapter of the book is definitely “Bad Stats” for me. The writer took me by surprise by his keen sense of understanding of statistics. Numbers can be misleading if you are determined to make them tell a story that they don’t really convey. And there are examples of how statistics are twisted to convey pre-determined inferences. Do that, and perfectly good science gets twisted to be bad.

This book will definitely open up your eyes to a lot of bull-shit, you wouldn’t believe how much, that goes on in this world. And while you probably will not go to the extent that Goldacre goes to validate, or repudiate, any of the gazillion claims of fat reduction, or hair growth, or memory enhancement that the latest new medicines make in newspapers you believe in, you will at least gain some intuition as to what is wrong with those claims. That perspective itself is the biggest take away from this book.