You may or may not have already heard about the recent study published in the “Food and Chemical Toxicology” journal, linking genetically modified (GM) maize with aggressive tumour formation and premature death.

Yes yes, one of our favorite subjects: magical healing and other fairy stories! From a Telegraph article by a Ms Anna Tyzack entitled: “Complementary medicine - does it work?“. Of course we already know the answer for a large number of modalities that fall under the umbrella term “Complementary”. This is a just dose of the same old really bad reasoning, which over the years has allowed all sorts of pseudoscience and crank degrees to creep into academia, national health systems, etc.

A much anticipated report from the largest such study in its field, the INTERPHONE analysis provided too much ammunition for the shock-title hungry newspapers to resist…

I was surprised last week to see a number of media reports on the apparent safety of the MMR vaccine and that, no, it doesn’t cause autism after all… Loads of evidence have been gathered over the last decade that conclusively show that MMR has nothing to do with autism whatsoever, yet even nowadays some still argue about this!

How science reporting works…

Long time no see. The “Stuff from the Science Blogosphere” series returns for the new season, after a longer than average break. And this time we have the usual alternative medicine crap, ranging from homeopathy (our favorite) to Chinese herbs and natural remedies. University courses that really should be more in touch with reality. And some antivaccinationist propaganda to close off this instalment a bit more seriously. Here we go…

“New pill can add 20 years to life” says the title. “A wonder pill could extend the lifespan of people by up to 23 years” says the subtitle. “The ‘elixir of life’ anti-ageing drug…” starts the article. A nice smiling lady consuming a white pill is shown in the photo. She seems very happy with her extra 23 years that come in a pill in your high street pharmacy. Cool and exciting stuff it seems.

After watching a short clip from Sir David Attenborough’s interview with Jonathan Ross, it seems that he might actually believe that the footprint is evidence of the existence of Yetis. I still maintain 100% that the Daily Mail has chosen sensationalism to make a headline, but now I have to write a couple of more sentences on this issue.