/oss/taxonomy/term/206/all en /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition/awash-carcinogens <p>Sir Percival Pott took an interest in the scrota of men. Particularly chimney sweeps. Pott was an eminent surgeon who in 1775 published a seminal paper that for the first time identified an environmental factor as a cancer-causing agent. He had observed an unusually high incidence of scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps and noted that soot was commonly embedded in the lesions. This led Dr. Pott to conclude that exposure to soot was a risk factor for cancer. He was correct! Soot contains a number of chemicals that have been identified as carcinogens.</p> Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:56:17 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9476 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-general-science/finding-paper-pubmed-does-not-mean-paper-any-good <p>As more and more people “do their own research,” some end up consulting a website called<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/"> </a><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/">PubMed</a>. An argument I have encountered is that if a scientific paper is listed on PubMed, it must mean this is an all-around good and trustworthy paper. Alas, if only it were so simple...</p> Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:07:35 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8758 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-general-science/when-numbers-get-politicized <p>Do political beliefs affect our ability to crunch numbers?</p> <p>Our brain is not straightforward. The past few years have served as a wake-up call for people who had not realized that believing weird things is quite common. From the rise of QAnon to the politicized debates over mask-wearing and the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, it has become abundantly transparent that our thinking easily zigs and zags according to our preconceptions. But what about math?</p> Wed, 21 Apr 2021 16:56:17 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8709 at /oss /oss/article/health-quackery/mamavation-blog-twists-scientific-study-take-down-axe-body-spray <hr /> <p class="note"><strong>Take-home message:</strong><br /> - The blog Mamavation would have you believe that a study showed that men using Axe Body Spray are less likely to get someone pregnant<br /> - The actual study was preliminary, did not study body sprays, was done in a very specific population of men, and did not look at their ability to father children</p> Thu, 25 Oct 2018 18:33:52 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7415 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/bacteria-our-body-are-not-just-inactive-hitchhikers <p>We share our body with bacteria. They live in our mouth, on our skin and mostly in our digestive tract. There are up to a thousand different varieties, and their total number, some 100 trillion, is many times greater than the total number of human cells in the body. Luckily bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, their total weight is only about three pounds, so we don’t look like bacteria.</p> Mon, 27 Nov 2017 17:10:55 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 6832 at /oss /oss/article/food-health/blueberries-and-breast-cancer <p>Blueberries may reduce the growth of breast cancer! So screamed newspaper headlines. A bit of an overstatement. The study referred to was carried out on female nude mice. These are mice specially bred for laboratory research that derive from a strain with a genetic mutation that causes them to have an under-active thymus gland resulting in an impaired immune system. Outwardly they lack body hair, hence the nickname “nude”. Suffice it to say that these nude mice are not a perfect model for predicting biological effects even in other mice, never mind in humans.</p> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:53:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1682 at /oss /oss/article/general-science-quackery/chemistry-lesson-food-babe-and-everyone-else-11-randomized-controlled-and-double-blind-studies <p>The gold standard in science is the randomized, controlled, double-blind trial. If you want to know whether Garcinia cambogia causes weight loss, or whether glucosamine helps with arthritic pain, there is only one way to find out. You have an experimental group that is given the substance and a control group that is given a placebo, with every other variable being held constant. These are difficult, expensive studies to carry out because you need a large enough group of subjects for statistical weight, you have to ensure compliance and you have to monitor what is going on.</p> Wed, 15 Feb 2017 22:03:14 +0000 Joe Schwarcz 1463 at /oss