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The Association for Skeptical Enquiry

Casting a critical eye over suspect science, dubious claims and bizarre beliefs


Welcome to the ASKE website

ASKE was founded in 1997 in the UK by a small group of people from different professional backgrounds who were opposed to the promotion of irrational ideas and practices and the misrepresentation of science for purposes that deceive the public. The association was mainly funded by annual membership subscriptions and donations from people who support its Aims and principles. Its main activity was the circulation of a magazine, the Skeptical Intelligencer which ran from 1996/7 to 2023, and a newsletter, the Skeptical Adversia, which ran from 2000 to 2012, when it was amalgamated with the Skeptical Intelligencer. ASKE ceased collecting membership subscriptions at the end of 2023. However, this website remains active and now serves the following purposes:

New material

By arrangement, you may contribute material to this website, and even have a webpage for your own contributions. Please email ASKE for further information. At present we have one regular contributor (see below).

Skeptical Linguistics: Mark Newbrook's Webpage

Mark Newbrook continues his regular column on skepticism in linguistics on this website. For many years this appeared, along with other papers and reviews by Mark, in the Skeptical Intelligencer (back copies here) under the title 'Language on the Fringe'.

Coming up soon from Mark

David Miano, Ph.D., is a historian, specializing in the cultures of the ancient world. An experienced teacher with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry, he is proprietor of the World of Antiquity YouTube channel, producing video lessons designed for public consumption. In 2022, Miano interviewed me on the subject of undeciphered ancient scripts. See Undeciphered Ancient Scripts (youtube.com}.

An article on this theme will on Mark's page soon.

What is skepticism?

Perhaps the first thing to notice is the spelling of the word, which in the UK is usually 'scepticism' (similarly, sceptic and sceptical). In the USA it's spelt 'skeptic', etc. and this spelling has become universal in the present context. Whatever the spelling, in everyday usage saying that you're skeptical about something means that you're not convinced...
Read more...

Being a skeptical activist

Many people from all walks of life are now actively involved in some way in what has become known as The Skeptical Movement .....
Read more....

Practical guides for skeptics

Are you intending consulting 'a psychic'? Or perhaps you are considering testing someone who claims to have paranormal powers. Are you a journalist preparing a newspaper article on a sensational new treatment outside of mainstream medicine or science? Would you like to devise your own quack remedy and set up a successful paractice, even though there is no evidence that it works? Would you like to learn how to be a dowser? The articles in Practical guides for skeptics provide instructions and advice on how to do all of these things. And Other organisations and websites lists many online organisations and individual websites of skeptical interest.

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SKEPTICAL NEWS

Chiropractors

'Chiropractors claim to hold the cure for an extraordinary range of health problems. Through the hands-on manipulation of the spine and surrounding bones, muscles and soft tissue, practitioners promise patients a way to treat back, shoulder and neck pain. Some go further, touting it as a treatment for everything from asthma and allergies to infant colic. But while chiropractic treatment boasts an army of ardent supporters, a string of high-profile cases have highlighted the potentially serious - and even life-threatening - risks. … The treatment recently made headlines after a coroner returned a verdict in the death of Joanna Kowalczyk, 29, who suffered a fatal tear of her blood vessels after having her neck 'adjusted' by a chiropractor.'

Supplements

The Return of Snake Oil: 'The Trump administration is poised to supercharge America's appetite for supplements. … Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist who's awaiting Senate confirmation to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has said he takes a "fistful" of vitamins each day. Kennedy has in recent years championed dietary supplements and decried their "suppression" by the FDA-an agency he would oversee as health secretary. Now he's poised to bring America's ever-growing supplement enthusiasm to the White House and supercharge the patent-medicine revival.'

Evidence Week in Parliament

From Sense About Science: 'This year's Evidence Week in Parliament brought together more MPs, Peers, researchers and voters than ever before to discuss how evidence is used and scrutinised at Westminster. Evidence Week empowers parliamentarians to ask the right questions of policy evidence - what works, what doesn't and what vital information is missing. It is important that legislators recognise how much the public value evidence, and what better way to do this than to have members of the public open Evidence Week? …. (January 2025's) Evidence Week ... welcomed more researchers than ever before into Parliament to deliver quick-fire policy briefings on a variety of topics including AI, health, climate change and pollution. Over two days, researchers from top UK institutions shared their latest findings with the offices of over 80 MPs and 14 Peers, creating over 300 new conversations and connections - engaging 45% more parliamentarians than the previous year! Hundreds of supporters submit questions for Committee Chairs, and hundreds more people watched our Reverse Committee hearing broadcast from Parliament, where committee chairs respond to members of the public on topics ranging from paternity leave and restorative justice to child poverty and transport spending. View the meeting.'

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars he made from his anti-vax crusade, Donald Trump’s transition team has admitted to the Daily Beast. Trump’s pick for health secretary previously said his career as the founder, chairman, and general counsel of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense was “unpaid” and “the opposite of a profit motive.” In personal financial disclosure forms required for all presidential candidates, Kennedy initially reported that he had earned $731,470.53 in 2022 and 2023. (In the summer of 2023, he reported making $515,960 the previous year from CHD; in the summer of 2024, he reported making $215,510.53.) But documents obtained by the Daily Beast show that Kennedy—after being nominated by Trump for his Cabinet—then quietly amended those forms to disclose that he had actually earned far more from his anti-vaccine nonprofit: a total of $1.2 million.'

Mehmet Oz

'A physician who peddles pseudoscience and profits off health disinformation. Perfect Trump pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. Mehmet Oz is the OG wellness grifter and probably the most notorious. He's made millions misleading the public and selling vulnerable people false promises. In fact, The Federal Trade Commission estimates that Mehmet Oz scammed YOU - the public - out of over $50 million by hawking fraudulent products on his TV show, The Dr. Oz Show alone. … And now, he has been nominated to head up The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the most critical human services agencies under the purview of HHS. CMS oversees healthcare programs that support over 160 MILLION Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace. It is critical this agency is ensuring nearly half our country has access to evidence-based care'

Mainstream Media

'Mainstream media's credibility has been diminishing for years. But the trend has attracted renewed attention from news leaders and analysts since the 2024 presidential election, when many outlets again misjudged the electoral chances of President-elect Donald Trump.'

Human Longevity

'For years, "blue zones," regions around the world where people allegedly live significantly longer than average, have been celebrated as places where people have unlocked the secret to living a healthy life. However, a recent study cast doubt on the validity of blue zones, suggesting that longevity in these regions may have less to do with health habits and more to do with poor record-keeping or fraud.1 While this study-a preprint that hasn't been peer-reviewed-was posted back in March, it's been gaining attention on social media after study author Saul Justin Newman, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Aging, won the Ig Nobel Award in Demography, a satirical science award, for this research in September.'

Preview paper 'Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud' here.

Black plastic utensils

Contrary to a recent research paper, your black plastic kitchen utensils may not be dangerous after all: 'Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching correction to a study reporting that toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen utensils. The study sparked a flurry of media reports a few weeks ago that urgently implored people to ditch their kitchen spatulas and spoons. Wirecutter even offered a buying guide for what to replace them with. The correction, posted Sunday, will likely take some heat off the beleaguered utensils. The authors made a math error that put the estimated risk from kitchen utensils off by an order of magnitude.'

Influencers selling fake cures for polycystic ovary syndrome

'Up to 70% of women with PCOS worldwide have not been diagnosed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and even when diagnosed, women struggle to find treatments that work.' According to gynaecologist and women's health educator Dr Jen Gunter, 'Whenever there's a gap in medicine, predators take advantage'. 'The main false or misleading claims shared by these influencers include: PCOS can be cured with dietary supplements; PCOS can be cured with a diet, such as the low-carbohydrate high-fat keto diet; birth control pills cause PCOS or worsen symptoms; mainstream medication may suppress PCOS, but doesn't address its "root cause"' There is no evidence that highly restricted calorie diets have any positive effect, and the keto diet may make symptoms worse. Birth control pills do not cause PCOS and in fact help many women, though they don't work for everyone. There is no known root cause for PCOS and there is no cure.'

Steven Bartlett

'Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett is amplifying harmful health misinformation on his number-one ranked podcast, a BBC investigation has found. Recent claims from guests - including that cancer can be treated by following a keto diet, rather than proven treatments - were allowed by the Dragons' Den star with little or no challenge. Experts have told us failing to question these disproven claims is dangerous because it creates a distrust of conventional medicine. In an analysis of 15 health-related podcast episodes, BBC World Service found each contained an average of 14 harmful health claims that went against extensive scientific evidence.’