THAMNO

“First do no harm” is a laudable principle when it is applied by people with a functioning brain. It is a highly dangerous fallacy when it is not.
When I have an acute appendicitis, I want my doctor to harm me. He/she is to take out her/his scalpel, cut me open and rip the darn [...]

Homoeopaths and other alternologists often dismiss randomized controlled trials outright and frown upon evidence. That is quite understandable, since much of alternology and certainly homoeopathy has been shown to be just as useful as sugar pills. After all, counterfeiters don’t like objective tests of the products of their labour either.
Yet, alternologists usually love outcome studies. [...]

In a new blog article, Prof. Edzard Ernst reminds us of a 2003 article in the British Medical Journal about a randomized controlled trial for parachutes. He concludes that the frequent quoting of this article by CAM fanatics shows three things. Firstly, they don’t understand the concepts of EBM, secondly, they have also misunderstood the brilliant article about parachutes and thirdly their sense of humor exists only in homeopathic dilution.

This is my reply to a recent article in Pulse and to the comments it attracted. When you travel, do you truly consider a magic carpet, or do you prefer an airplane? When you are genuinely ill, should you consider homoeopathy, or is medicine a better choice?

The Cambrian (500 million years ago) is often seen as the period in which nature attempted to find the best life forms and that the strange creatures of the time were very short-lived experiments. New fossil discoveries in Morocco now show this is wrong.

Dispersants are part of the arsenal used in the battle against the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No one knows what the effect will be on the environment, but there are some clues.

Tundra Trek is the newest addition at Toronto Zoo. Although the exhibit is very large, it displays only six species, but it does so in a way that takes into account animal welfare as well as the desires and educational needs of a demanding public.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and the heart of the country’s economy. It is also one of the planet’s greenest cities, offering a permanent or temporary home to billions of birds. On International Migratory Bird Day, we look for them at Toronto Zoo.

Catholic bishops brushed aside complaints related to paedophilia and sexual abuse against 87 priests, according to a charity specialized in human rights abuse in the Church.

In a stained glass window, a boy is giving a blowjob to a priest, or so it seems.