A Grain of Truth: Recreating Dr. Emoto’s Rice Experiment

by Carrie Poppy

Special Articles · Poppycock

March 11, 2014

Are you a human? Do you have access to the internet? Then you may already know about Dr. Masaru Emoto, the Japanese “scientist” who magically turns normal rice into gross rice, simply by yelling at it.

My First Trance

by Carrie Poppy

Special Articles · Poppycock

March 3, 2014

I sat with the older members of a group of twenty-eight people. Twenty were standing. I was the only guest. This was my second meeting with them. They often get together to pray, lay hands on the sick, and communicate with spirits. The spirits don’t talk back, but that doesn’t stop them.

Prehistoric Survivors? They Are Really Most Sincerely Dead

by Sharon Hill

Special Articles · Sounds Sciencey

February 28, 2014

A popular gambit in cryptozoology is to say that a cryptid is a real animal that was presumed long extinct but has lived on undetected. Here is why that sounds sciencey, but is bad reasoning.

Gone Squatchin’:  My Day at the Bigfoot Expo

by Rebecca Watson

Special Articles · Skepchick

February 26, 2014

The schedule ran from noon until 6:15pm and was packed with talks like, “Bigfoot Eyeshine—What Is It?” and “What Would Sasquatch Do?” which I imagined as a lecture on top-down morality and ethics as espoused by a shy, possibly fictional woodland creature.

Losing Our Minds in the Age of Brain Science

by Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld

Skeptical Inquirer · Article · Volume 37.6

Neuroscience and its new brain imaging tools are great achievements of modern science. But they are vulnerable to being oversold by the media, some overzealous scientists, and neuroentrepreneurs.

Will Psychics “Cure” Cancer?

by Carrie Poppy

Special Articles · Poppycock

February 20, 2014

The online psychic industry is a seemingly bottomless collection of clairvoyants, tarot card readers, psychic healers, and other people in purple outfits.