Show Me The Evidence, Please

[BPSDB]I previously wrote here on the Times OnLine’s slightly inaccurate description of the effect of ‘Health & Safety’ on school science practicals and illustrated my point with examples of supposedly banned experiments still performed at my school. One commenter pointed out that this was really just anecdotal evidence and countered with an anecdote of her own to the effect that practical work had decreased at the school attended by her daughters.

David Herzog – Miracleman?

[BPSDB]As far as I can tell, David Herzog is an independeant evangelist but his methods seem to be taken from the same book as those of the UCKG.

The Times Gets It Slightly Wrong About Science Education

[BPSDB]Sometimes I think that the Press and I live in parallel universes. What else can explain the fact that they publish stuff as news that I know to be false? They even claim that stuff I do on a regular basis as part of my job as a school lab technician never actually happens.

Lessons Learned? I Don’t Think So.

[BPSDB]
This post also appears on Lay Science.

Lord Drayson seems convinced that the media has learned the relevent lessons over the MMR debacle. At a conference of science journalists on 1 July he told delegates that lessons had been learned since MMR and repeats the assertion during a debate with Ben Goldacre here. Is he right to be so confident?

Daily Mail Continues Baseless Scaremongering

[BPSDB]I have previously covered the Daily Mail’s attempts to whip up fear over the HPV vaccine. When Natalie Morton tragically died shortly after receiving this vaccine, certain elements in the antivaxx movement must have thought Christmas had come early.