The American Martin Gardner died this week, aged 95. Although he wrote many popular books and articles on mathematics, his most influential work was a 1952 book called "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science". In a straightforward and charming way, he explained how to tell pseudoscience from real science (for those who haven't heard of it, science is when you try something, observe the results, and then draw conclusions based on those results). He then went on to demolish more than two dozen popular fallacies. Many of those are still widespread, like homeopathy, flying saucers, and scientology. Some, like chiropractic and naturopathy, have become more scientific but still rely heavily on pseudoscience. Others, like ESP or Lawsonomy, are nearly forgotten.
This was a brave book to write in the 1950's. Even more so than today, quack science had legions of devoted supporters--not just National Enquirer readers, but senior members of the government, universities, and the private sector. When the book was written, it had only been 10 years since eugenics was the national policy of Germany, and Lysenkoism was still the national policy of the USSR. These were extreme cases, but even the most obscure quack caused harm, by convincing an ill person to rely on quack medication, by confounding real knowledge with fiction, or simply by bilking the gullible or lonely.
In the 21st century, we are still struggling with pseudoscience. For most people, modern science is indistinguishable from magic. In a world where the Library of Congress can fit in a $50 USB key, where our food, clothing, cars, almost everything we own is derived from a black sticky goo, and where doctors can see the inside of our bodies without radiation or incisions, it is easy to understand why. In some ways things are even worse than the 1950's; then, science was respected for ending World War II, curing polio, curing hunger. Today, scientists are often marginalized as prophets of doom or mad scientists, and it is Wall Street wizardry that drives the popular imagination.
I recognize the limitations of science, but it is still one of the best tools we have to understand the world we live in. Climate change, humanity's greatest threat, can never be addressed with creationism or scientology. Carbon credits, energy efficiency campaigns, and tree planting can never curb global warming unless they have a sound foundation in fact. So I urge anyone and everyone to read Martin Gardner's book and learn to tell the real McCoy from the snake oil.
For a more modern discussion of the field of pseudoscience, I invite you read Ben Goldacre's books or articles.
