Ben Goldacre
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Ben Goldacre is a British physician and journalist, and the author of the The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column.[1] He describes himself as "a junior doctor in London and a shameless geek".[2]
[edit] Academic career
He studied medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford where he obtained a first class degree in his preclinical studies in 1995.[2] While at Oxford he also edited the student magazine Isis.[3] Before going on to clinical medicine at University College London, he was a visiting researcher in cognitive neurosciences at the University of Milan, working on fMRI brain scans of language and executive function. He received a masters degree in philosophy (funded by the British Academy) from King's College London.[2] He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and has a training fellowship at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London.[4]
[edit] Bad Science column
Goldacre writes a weekly column, Bad Science, in the Saturday edition of The Guardian newspaper,[1] and publishes expanded versions of the columns with reader comments on his website badscience.net.[5] Devoted to satirical criticism of scientific inaccuracy, health scares, pseudoscience and quackery, it focuses especially on examples from the mass media, consumer product marketing and complementary and alternative medicine in Britain.[6]
Goldacre's criticisms are detailed examinations of claims made and the evidence (or lack of evidence) for them; they do not rely upon trusting his expertise but expound the underlying facts.
Goldacre has published a hypothesis of "why bad science reporting occurs", and [7] his book Bad Science will be published by 4th Estate in 2008.[8]
He has been a particular critic of the claims of television nutritionist Gillian McKeith,[9] anti-immunisation campaigners (particularly followers of Andrew Wakefield such as Melanie Phillips), Brain Gym,[10] bogus positive MRSA swab stories in tabloids,[11] and the makers of the product Penta Water.[12] While investigating McKeith's membership of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants, Goldacre purchased a "certified professional membership" on behalf of his late cat, Henrietta, from the same institution for $60.[13] In February 2007, McKeith agreed to stop using the title "Dr" in her advertising following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority by a Bad Science reader.[14]
In 2008 Goldacre and The Guardian were sued for libel by Matthias Rath for the content of an article about Zackie Achmat.[15] An attempt by Rath to obtain summary judgment in his favour or to strike out parts of the Guardian's defences of justification and fair comment was rejected in March 2008 (except for some words in the defence referring to previous publications which were struck out) in a hearing in which it was estimated that a full hearing of the case would take 4 weeks before dealing with expert evidence[16].[17] As of June 2008 there have been no subsequent developments reported in the UK courts, but in June 2008 a South African court forbade the conduction of "unauthorised clinical trials into the use of vitamin therapies to treat Aids," and "barred [Rath] from publishing any advertisements for his natural Aids remedies..."[18]
[edit] Awards
Goldacre has won several awards for his journalism, including:
