Skepticism

The folk wisdom built up around common English expressions is often wrong, but it can be fun ferreting out the real origins.

A number of folk stories and a few divisive rumors have surrounded the office of the U.S. presidency, and skeptical folks like us check a few of them out.

Various ways of assigning numbers to events, people, and actions is an ancient parlor game, but let’s not take it beyond that.

Full moons appeal to our imaginations and contribute to our mythologies, but ascribing too much power to them appears to be a continuing form of lunacy.

Did you follow the news from the global climate conference in Durban and discuss it with your peers? If you said no, welcome to the club.

The placebo effect’s ability to influence human healing and human behavior is well documented, but we must be careful to make sure this fakery does no harm.

Professional skeptic D.J. Grothe explores the difference between skepticism and cynicism and describes how fooling some of the people some of the time is a bad idea all of the time.

Reparative or conversion therapy's efforts to "pray away the gay" come a cropper when examined with a skeptical eye.

The idea that legions of psychics are helping police solve crimes around the world is based on, well, nothing.

When superfoods like blueberries, pomegranates, açai, green tea sound a little too amazing, it might be time to take a closer look.

A couple of prominent end-of-the-world predictions may or may not come to pass, but lots of people promoting them are betting your bottom dollar they won't.

Conspiracy theorists have already emerged from the woodwork asking if bin Laden is really dead, or if he was dead already. Don't be fooled.

While "figures lie and liars figure," that's no reason not to pay attention to some basic facts about common numerical comparisons.

Professional skeptic James Randi's offer to pay a million dollars to the maker of any homeopathic remedy that actually works points out the logical fallacies in this branch of 'medicine.'

Being vocally anti-science has become a defining mark of a current style of politics, an intentional ignorance that recalls the Scopes Monkey Trial, argues law professor Robert Benson.

New research finds Republicans scoff at "global warming," but are much more receptive to the notion of "climate change."

What’s one way to convert climate change skeptics? By making them sweat.

Miller-McCune.com's resident skeptic, just as you might expect of a Scorpio, will have no truck with horoscopes or astrology.

Mythology aside, not everyone who listened to that famous ‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast went bonkers.

Letters to the Editor: From Beethoven to Zappa, new technology hasn't been out of tune with beautiful music.