tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post7967288176881873066..comments2023-11-05T10:11:31.578+00:00Comments on Just William's Luck: the appliance of scienceWilliam Rycrofthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15056188088340973039noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post-82728266099727859992009-01-10T10:18:00.000+00:002009-01-10T10:18:00.000+00:00And the award for most well-researched comment goe...And the award for most well-researched comment goes to John Self. Fascinating stuff, I'll have to keep a closer eye on my GP next time I visit. I noticed you mentioned Dr Haggard's Disease in the comments about The Holy City and have noticed your penchant for McGrath. I've only read Asylum myself, but seem to remember enjoying it although I haven't picked up anything of his since. Maybe Dr Haggard will be the one.<BR/><BR/>Sarah, welcome, and thanks for your comments. Bad Science is worth a read if only so that next time you spot some bad science on the TV you can beat your dad to it.William Rycrofthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15056188088340973039noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post-74784702259393962262009-01-10T06:20:00.000+00:002009-01-10T06:20:00.000+00:00My dad is a science graduate, and watching tv with...My dad is a science graduate, and watching tv with him is a painful experience. He takes great exception to examples of bad science like cosmetics ads, cancer cure news reports etc and is quite vocal about this!<BR/><BR/>With that in mind, I bought this book for him for Xmas. It sounds like I'll have to read it after him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post-65375820329423420362009-01-08T15:00:00.000+00:002009-01-08T15:00:00.000+00:00Another book which touches, fictionally, on the su...Another book which touches, fictionally, on the subject is my evergreen favourite <EM>Dr Haggard's Disease</EM> by Patrick McGrath. He's a GP on the south coast in the 1930s, and when taking over the practice, his predecessor shows him the three jars of sugar pills, each a different colour, and reminds him always to make great show of choosing the 'right' one for the parient. "The body has tremendous powers to heal itself, but it's got to be persuaded." He also uses an inert liquid placebo called Mist Explo.<BR/><BR/>There's an interesting paper which touches on the subject <A HREF="http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=192384" REL="nofollow">here</A>, from the point of view of patients insisting on being given some medicine by their doctors, so doctors gave them a placebo. Near the bottom of the page (below Fig. 8):<BR/><BR/>"Although doctors might appear to be ‘fobbing off’ their patients with stock medicines, in fact practitioners complained that patients expected to leave the surgery with a bottle of medicine (most drugs were dispensed in liquid rather than tablet form in this period). They were therefore forced to act in response to patient demand. Some of these frequently prescribed medicines had little pretensions to do any good. Elsewhere in her book, Digby reports that one doctor handed out coloured aspirins. In another practice, one of the stock medicines ‘was labelled “Mist. ADT” or “Mist. Any Damn Thing” [‘Mist.’ is an abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘mixture’ ] which was given to “somebody you thought there was nothing wrong with, and you could do nothing for”’. More alarmingly, another practitioner prescribed a mixture … called Mist. Explo. It was a clear yellow liquid made from a few bright yellow crystals dissolved in water. The crystals were apt to ignite if left to dry in the sunlight, hence the name Mist Explosive. I don't remember the exact chemistry of this wonder drug but it was a derivative of picric acid and quite harmless when well diluted and used as a bitter tonic."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post-41598349564920417942009-01-05T11:53:00.000+00:002009-01-05T11:53:00.000+00:00Thanks John. The placebo thing is really interesti...Thanks John. The placebo thing is really interesting, especially learning that the number of pills, their colour, and the price paid for them can all have an impact. At the end of the day if you believe something is going to make you better that's the single best thing you can do to help yourself get well.<BR/><BR/>On the BBC website today is this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7808348.stm<BR/>perfectly timed for all those people with New Year detox plans. Save your money people, you have a thing called a liver which is specifically designed to do just that.William Rycrofthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15056188088340973039noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7534509012046591314.post-77568026890551222592009-01-05T11:27:00.000+00:002009-01-05T11:27:00.000+00:00An excellent review (slightly better than the book...An excellent review (slightly better than the book in my view, which I liked but didn't love - or didn't love as much as I expected to, which might not be the same thing).<BR/><BR/>Further fruitful reading on the subject of bad science is to be had, surprisingly enough, in Derren Brown's book <A HREF="http://theasylum.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/derren-brown-tricks-of-the-mind/" REL="nofollow">Tricks of the Mind</A> (which for some reason has become the third most viewed post on my blog). Your flu-pill experience sounds a little like this anecdote which Brown recounts:<BR/><BR/>"A woman at a Christian house-group I once attended was telling us how she had dealt with getting a cold. She had sat on her bed and shouted, ‘No, Satan, I will not have this cold. In the name of Jesus I tell you to get out. Get out!’ Stern stuff. ‘And do you know,’ she continued, ‘after a few days it was gone.’"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com