BEN GOLDACRE Bad Science ****

I gave this four stars because you ought to read it!

Ben Goldacre is a medical doctor with a column in The Guardian also called Bad Science. In that column and in this book he lays into both those who abuse science and the lazy press who write all sorts of sensational articles claiming that "research shows..." something spectacular - normally something that will either give you cancer or miraculously cure it. Goldacre's beef is that hardly anyone bothers to question the quality of the research or its methods.

He debunks homeopathic medicines. They're nothing but placebos. But notwithstanding that he admits that going to see a sympathetic homeopath who listens to your problems and takes you seriously will probably do you good!

It's frequently very funny in a black-humoured way. Take for instance the MRSA scare of a few years ago. Journalists kept taking samples to the same 'scientist', because when they sent them to mainstream labs they didn't come back with the 'right' results -i.e. they were coming back negative. But this guy could be relied on to find MRSA for you, which made for better copy and more sensational headlines about "Our filthy hospitals'. Goldacre finds out that this 'scientist' has bought his PhD and operates out of his garden shed.

Another target is the drug companies who abuse the testing process and publish misleading results.