Skepticism

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Kathy Seal

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.'

• By Peter M. Nardi

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.

• By Robert Benson

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

• By Tom Jacobs

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

• By Tom Jacobs

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Peter M. Nardi

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

• By Miller-McCune Readers