French microbiologist Didier Raoult has been given the 2020 Rusty Razor for his promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.

Even after Brazil’s “Covid kit” of alternative treatments was shown to be ineffective, doctors were given sales targets to keep prescribing – with official guidance on how t…

The COVID-19 inquiry in Brazil is an opportunity to understand what went wrong and what can be learned – it is one we can’t afford to pass up

Science-based policies can save us from future pandemics. We won’t get them by remaining silent when denialism takes over governments.

Investigations show doctors were pressured to prescribe “early treatment protocol” Covid kits made up of unproven, ineffective interventions

Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant Dr Elisabeth Bik has today been named the 2021 recipient of the Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism.

In their rush to decry the ‘transhumanist agenda’, parts of the Gender Critical movement continue to inadvertently launder antisemitic conspiracy theories

Peterson’s claim that “medicine kills more people than it helps” is the latest in a long line of demonstrably false claims – yet his fans continue to hang off his every word

The pseudoscience and vaccine scaremongering from Drs Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein illustrates the importance of intellectual humility, especially when operating outside your field of knowledg…

While health misinformation is rife in Brazil, confidence in vaccines remains extremely high, thanks to decades of public health messaging

The GMC refused to investigate Dr Aseem Malhotra for spreading vaccine misinformation – but a new legal case seeks to challenge their inaction

Nominations for the 2021 Ockham Awards are now open, with our annual award for Skeptical Activism and our Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience.

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UPDATE: You can now watch this exciting and hilarious talk between Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais on the Center for Inquiry video page. Multi award-winni ...

Given there’s no reliable evidence acupuncture works, and it has been associated with significant harm, its risks outweigh its benefits.

Dr Natalia Pasternak has received the 2020 Ockham Award for skeptical activism, and Skeptics in the Pub Online receive the Editor’s Choice award

The Dragons’ Den Acu Seeds debacle shows how understandably desperate ME/cfs are – and how vulnerable to misinformation from authoritative sources

The WHO is right to say we should respect indigenous, ‘traditional’ medical knowledge – but proper respect means applying scrutiny and rigour

As covid-19 spreads across Brazil, Natalia Pasternak and Carlos Orsi highlight how one purported miracle cure found friends in very high places.

The BBC’s Disinformation Unit has today been named the 2022 recipient of the Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism.

As covid-19 spreads across Brazil, Natalia Pasternak and Carlos Orsi highlight how one purported miracle cure found friends in very high places.

‘Cheap talk’ skepticism – coming at little cost to the doubter, but significant cost to others – is undermining genuine skeptical inquiry.

The ‘anti-woke helpline’ Counterweight launched in a flurry of uncritical media interviews, but are less forthcoming when it comes to answering reasonable questions from critics

The giant screen at Euston Station boasts of saving energy, while using more electricity than the average street, just to serve us adverts we didn’t consent to see

In celebration of the career of James Randi, The Skeptic’s editors and supporters share their memories of the quintessential skeptical icon.

Described by some as the “Davos of COVID conspiracy theorists”, the Better Way conference clearly had its sights set on undermining confidence in all vaccines

Our new editor Michael Marshall talks about the challenge of countering coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theory, and why compassion is such an important aspect of skepticism.

The NHS endorsing a charity-funded Reiki practitioner role only serves to legitimise quackery and deny patients the opportunity of effective support and care

Driven by the Discovery Institute, Creationism and Intelligent Design have been gaining ground in Brazil, and finding support in government.

Conditions that clear without antibiotics aren’t proof that homeopathy works, but that some infections can clear up on their own

After Disney dropped one of their stars over antisemitic social media posts, we look at common problematic tropes in ‘anti-globalist’ imagery

A forum for unmoderated free speech quickly became a place to showcase the worst aspects of human nature, with grim consequences.

Discussing abortion rights on the terms of the religious right is a damaging mistake – the right to an abortion isn’t just about ‘morally acceptable’ reasons like assault or medical eme…

Netflix documentaries commodifying conspiracism and pseudoscience for mainstream audiences could have wider consequences including exposure to antisemitism

Brazil continues to make baffling healthcare decisions, including lighting up the Brazilian congress buildings… in honour of homeopathy

The alternative medicine industry has built up an ecosystem that efficiently radicalises its devotees into extreme positions

A climate change denial charity with close ties to the Conservative government, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, has today been named the 2022 recipient of the “Rusty Razor” award

Humans form in-groups on the thinnest of pretexts – it’s better to acknowledge the communities we’re in than to delude ourselves in thinking we are ‘post-tribal’

As skeptics, we hear the same sayings and mantras repeated again and again, but we rarely pause to consider if they’re useful… or even true

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The #TradWife movement claims to offer women a simple, structured and idealised life. In reality, it reduces women to property, in service to white nationalist agendas

IQC – born in response to Bolsanaro and forged in the fight against COVID-19 pseudoscience – aims to establish its permanent place in post-Bolsanaro Brazil

A look at a paper touting the benefits of placebo for shoulder pain shows ‘powerful placebo’ claims fail to stand up to scrutiny.

As the anti-vaxx movement grew in Brazil, the team from investigative podcast Ciência Suja follows the key figures involved in spreading vaccine misinformation

Podcast hosts have a real intimacy with their listeners – that trust is eroded when they advertise snake oil supplements and pseudoscience

Vet Danny Chambers highlights how the aggressive promotion of alternative therapies to prevent and treat animal diseases has become widespread.

Nominations for the 2023 Ockham Awards are now open, with our annual award for Skeptical Activism and our Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience.

Nominations for the 2020 Ockham Awards are now open, with our annual award for Skeptical Activism and our Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience.

Despite a total lack of evidence that osteopathy is any help at all, many osteopaths routinely perform manipulations on babies and infants

Mr Lawler suffered a fractured neck, and the chiropractor who administered his treatment was found to have misled medical professionals – yet faces no real punishment.

Culture war issues have long been used to try to derail social progress, but as exhausting as they are, they’re worth pushing back against

As viral videos claimed that the vaccinated were dying in great number due to vaccine-caused blood clots, antivax communities adopted a new label for themselves: “purebloods”

Though largely unnoticed, Charles’ appointment of alt-med advocate, Dr Michael Dixon, as Head of the Royal Medical Household may be telling

Conspiracy theories about the Treaty of Lausanne and its implications for Turkish sovereignty are common in Turkey, and are being weaponised by cynical political movements

Sunscreen is one of the most highly effective and evidence-based methods of preventing skin cancer, so why is there an online movement discouraging its use?

If Alphafold2 is as transformative as its makers claim, keeping its knowledge secret is troubling – especially when medical advances could be made if this technology is as good as they claim.

Is there really a plan to end Western society by destroying traditional masculinity, or are these beliefs just old prejudices in modern dress?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0BC3F0kqtw&feature=youtu.be&t=1053 Multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and actor Ricky Gervais was ...

A recent systematic review looked at the use of 24 alternative medicine modalities on cats, dogs, and horses. The results were less than impressive.

Skeptics can be uncomfortable reconciling ethics with a materialist worldview, but one solution is to accept that ‘value’ can be an objective concept

Chronic pain patients need evidence-based care – instead, new NICE guidelines offer them patronising messaging, paternalism, and acupuncture

If we want to be effective in countering anti-vaxxers, we need to understand their arguments, and why people believe them.

The religious right in America are not taking secularism lying down, and they will cause a lot of suffering if the threat they pose is not taken seriously.

Before the media report on the US government’s interest in UFOs, they ought to take a look at whose making UFO claims – and who is funding them

Endometriosis affects one in ten women – yet patients continue to face an uphill battle for diagnosis and treatment

Philosophy lecturer Aaron Rabinowitz outlines the ethical core of skepticism, and explains why a compassionate understanding of morality must underpin the skeptical worldview.

While recent attention has understandably been on Dragons’ Den’s promotion of ME/cfs quackery, the BBC show’s flirtation with pseudoscience runs much deeper

Terms like ‘privilege’ have, rightly or wrongly, become divisive – a simpler, and perhaps more fitting, question to ask is how lucky we’ve been

Spotting rogue dentists and dubious remedies can be difficult for the layperson patient – so here’s a guide to some of the common red flags

Claire Klingenberg looks back over the history of skepticism around the world, tracing its roots from the oldest skeptical group to the first skeptical celebrity.

Philosophy lecturer Aaron Rabinowitz outlines the ethical core of skepticism, and explains why a compassionate understanding of morality must underpin the skeptical worldview.

Brazilian courts are disturbingly fond of Family Constellation, a pseudoscientific form of therapy that pushes blame onto victims, and retraumatises the most vulnerable people

Is there really a plan to end Western society by destroying traditional masculinity, or are these beliefs just old prejudices in modern dress?

In the world of the virus deniers, not only is the novel coronavirus fake, but viruses themselves don’t actually exist.

The 1980s saw a rise in belief that Satanic ritual abuse was everywhere – however, the real problems were false memories and moral panic

Legendary horror stories of monstrously hairy hands sending drivers in Devon to their death can be traced back to a spate of tabloid tales in the 1920s

The claim that “four placebo pills work better than two placebo pills” is based on a misreading of an outdated study – we need to stop repeating it

The idea that ear candling can remove built-up wax from the ear remains popular, even though it’s clear ear candles are ineffective, and can be highly dangerous