Seth Shostak <sshostak@seti.org>
How placebos heal.
false
2009-10-26T00:00:00-07:00
<p>Popping a pill may help when you’re sick… but maybe not for the reasons you think. Sugar pills - placebos - cure illness better than prescription pills in as many as half of all cases in clinical trials … and the placebo effect is getting stronger. </p>
<p>Plus, the safety – or otherwise - of electromagnetic waves, and the “electro-sensitive” refugees who have built a camp to protect themselves from waves they say are causing pain. Is it all in their minds?</p>
<p>And, New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye joins Phil Plait on the latest lapse in critically-thinking brains – a wild idea that may not be so loony: namely, could a cosmic censor from the future be thwarting efforts to find the Higgs boson?</p>
<p>It’s <i>Skeptic Check</i> … but don’t take our word for it!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/o/dennis_overbye/index.html">Dennis Overbye</a></strong> - Domestic Correspondent, <i>New York Times</i></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/info/whois.html">Phil Plait</a></strong> - Keeper of the skeptical website <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/">badastronomy.com</a> and author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670019976?ie=UTF8&tag=arweal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0670019976">Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=arweal-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0670019976" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /></i></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.stevesilberman.com/">Steve Silberman</a></strong> - Contributing editor, <i>Wired Magazine</i>, author of “The Placebo Problem” in the September 2009 issue</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://portal.ctrl.ucla.edu/sph/institution/personnel?personnel_id=254761">Leeka Kheifets</a></strong> - Epidemiologist, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.seti.cl/podcast-del-instituto-seti-revision-esceptica-cuida-tu-cuerpo/">Descripción en español</a></strong></p>
<p>Popping a pill may help when you’re sick… but maybe not for the reasons you think. Sugar pills – placebos – cure illness better than prescription pills in as many as half of all cases in clinical trials … and the placebo effect is getting stronger. </p>
<p>Plus, the safety – or otherwise – of electromagnetic waves, and the “electro-sensitive” refugees who have built a camp to protect themselves from waves they say are causing pain. Is it all in their minds?</p>
<p>And, New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye joins Phil Plait on the latest lapse in critically-thinking brains – a wild idea that may not be so loony: namely, could a cosmic censor from the future be thwarting efforts to find the Higgs boson?</p>
<p>It’s <i>Skeptic Check</i> … but don’t take our word for it!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/o/dennis_overbye/index.html">Dennis Overbye</a></strong> – Domestic Correspondent, <i>New York Times</i></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.badastronomy.com/info/whois.html">Phil Plait</a></strong> – Keeper of the skeptical website <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/">badastronomy.com</a> and author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670019976?ie=UTF8&tag=arweal-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0670019976">Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=arweal-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0670019976" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /></i></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.stevesilberman.com/">Steve Silberman</a></strong> – Contributing editor, <i>Wired Magazine</i>, author of “The Placebo Problem” in the September 2009 issue</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://portal.ctrl.ucla.edu/sph/institution/personnel?personnel_id=254761">Leeka Kheifets</a></strong> – Epidemiologist, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.seti.cl/podcast-del-instituto-seti-revision-esceptica-cuida-tu-cuerpo/">Descripción en español</a></strong></p>
276
image/jpeg
MindYourBodyMED.jpg
11779
Dennis Overbye, Phil Plait, Steve Silberman, Leeka Kheifets
AWA_09-10-26.mp3
267403200
false
Skeptic_Check_Mind_Your_Body
2009-10-26T00:00:00-07:00
Skeptic Check: Mind Your Body