Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
While eating my ribtips (I see the termites have already descended on that post), I turned on the PBS channel on t.v. (WTTW in Chicago, if anybody there is listening.) On the show, to my chagrin, appeared Deepak Chopra and Rudy Tanzi, On a show called “Brain, Body, Mind”, they were dispensing health advice to callers—and, of course, flogging their wares.
One older woman called in, worried about her lack of exercise.
Tanzi fielded the question (with support by Deepakity), urging her get some exercise regularly. That’s fine advice, though everyone knows it. But then Tanzi added that after two months of regular exercise, like walking for an hour a day, her genes would get “reprogrammed.”
That’s bullshit, of course, based on the unevidenced claim that human experience can, epigenetically, change your genome in a useful and permanent way. But there’s not a scintilla of data showing that environmentally based adaptive methylation can occur in human DNA, so the Unholy Duo were talking out of their nether parts. Yes, relaxation, good diet, and exercise are good for all, but why do they drag this gene crap in?
To make themselves seem “scientific”, of course! Otherwise they’d just be telling you what anybody would, much less your doctor. And you wouldn’t buy their CDs and books, which are being flogged at this moment. There has to be a hook, and that hook is attached to your wallet.
This is quackery, pure and simple, and I’ve written about it before. Why, oh why, does PBS present these quacks as if they knew what they were talking about? They’re misleading people at the same time they’re filling their pockets.
It’s a pity, for at one time Tanzi seemed to be a reputable scientist. But the lure of Mammon was too great, and he sold his soul to Deepakity.
What is it with the UK? The National Health Service still subsidizes homeopathy in some parts of England, and now there are reliable reports (here and here) that a substantial number of British water companies—10 out of 12!—use dowsing (if you don’t know it, look here) to find water, in particular pipes and mains.
I’m proud to say that this ridiculous practice was discovered by an evolutionary biologist—Sally Le Page, a grad student at Oxford—and first published on her site at Medium. She got wind of this when she saw a man from a big Midlands water company, a company called in to install a pipe from the mains, walking around her parents’ yard dowsing. Further inquiries revealed that 83% of the 12 companies use a practice that has never been scientifically shown to work, and there have been plenty of tests. As Le Page notes:
Every properly conducted scientific test of water dowsing has found it no better than chance (e.g. here, here, and here, nicely described here). You’ll be just as likely to find water by going out and taking a good guess as you will by walking around with divining rods. And it’s not for lack of testing; there was even $1 million up for grabs for anyone who could provide rigorous evidence that you can find water using dowsing techniques.
Yes, a dude with a Y-shaped stick can have the stick suddenly point down, but as Le Page notes, that’s due to the ideomotor effect, the same subconscious wish-thinking that moves the cursor on a Ouija board. The main thing is that this movement has never shown any ability to find water in blind tests.
Le Page did what a good determined skeptic would do: she found out which companies used this ridiculous practice, and then tweeted them. Their replies are evasive and dumb; here are a few posted by the CBC:
Severn Trent:
Anglian Water:
Northumbrian Water:
Thames Water:
So they know this is happening and even seem credulous enough to believe that dowsing works. Now, as the BBC says, the companies don’t issue “divining rods” to their employees, but those companies are clearly (based on the above) aware that this practice is going on—on company time. The BBC adds this:
Ms Le Page said: “I can’t state this enough: there is no scientifically rigorous, doubly blind evidence that divining rods work.
“Isn’t it a bit silly that big companies are still using magic to do their jobs?”
In a statement issued later, Severn Trent said: “We don’t issue divining rods but we believe some of our engineers use them.”
All the companies emphasised they do not encourage the use of divining rods nor issue them to engineers, and said modern methods such as drones and listening devices were preferred.
Northern Ireland Water, Northumbrian Water, South West Water and Wessex Water said their engineers do not use them.
If you’re a patron of one of the following water companies, you may want to write or email them asking why your money is being used to subsidize superstitious woo (I could find only nine of the ten companies that dowse).
Anglian Water
Thames Water
Scottish Water
Southern Water
Welsh Water
United Utilities
Yorkshire Water
Severn Trent Water
Northumbrian Water
You go, Ms. Le Page. Here’s our latest hero, and a tweet showing she has a sense of humor:
Sally Le Page
Breaking news: Head of Department not angry that PhD student spends an entire day arguing with water companies on Twitter instead of working on her PhD in order to expose use of magic 😜 https://t.co/hDVL2htkS9
Here’s Sally, who has a YouTube channel, enthusing about her new fly paper in Proc. Roy. Soc.—her first publication. I well remember when I got my first paper published, as an undergrad. I carried a reprint around in my back pocket for a week—not to show anyone, but to take it out repeatedly and look at it. I well understand her glee. When I sent it to my folks, they asked me how much I got paid for publishing it. When I responded that it was the opposite—I had to pay them to publish it (page charges—they were completely flummoxed.
. . . in Houston, that is. The George Bush airport is HUGE and not pleasant. Next I have a 2-hour flight to Puebla.
I have no time for posting, but here’s something to examine very critically. The famed physicist Roger Penrose, over at the Daily Galaxy, says he has a reliable physical mechanism for producing a soul. Have a look at the piece and then have at it. I’m told by a friend that this stuff is all over social media, since it has the imprimatur of a genuine Famous Scientist.
One quote:
While scientists are still in heated debates about what exactly consciousness is, the University of Arizona’s Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose conclude that it is information stored at a quantum level. Penrose agrees –he and his team have found evidence that “protein-based microtubules—a structural component of human cells—carry quantum information— information stored at a sub-atomic level.”
Penrose argues that if a person temporarily dies, this quantum information is released from the microtubules and into the universe. However, if they are resuscitated the quantum information is channeled back into the microtubules and that is what sparks a near death experience. “If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.
Not only that, but others (who are unnamed) agree:
Researchers from the renowned Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich are in agreement with Penrose that the physical universe that we live in is only our perception and once our physical bodies die, there is an infinite beyond. Some believe that consciousness travels to parallel universes after death.
Well, all I can say is that there is no evidence I’m aware of that quantum-mechanical phenomena operate in the brain, much less that they play a role in consciousness and memory. And even if they did, how does any “information” in the brain stay together as a coherent unit after death? In what form does it exist? (It can’t be particles or forces, as Sean Carroll has shown.) And how does it get into another body?
Oy gewalt! How does a renowned physicist who did important work get involved with this stuff? But I’m just a poor country biologist. I wish I had Sean Carroll here behind this sign. . .
I’m sure I’ve posted this video at some time in the past, but it must have been long ago, and it’s worth seeing again.( Besides, I just watched it.)
Here Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain defends science against various species of quackery. He reminds me a bit of George Carlin, and I love the “get in the fooking sack” bit, which should become part of every skeptic’s vocabulary.
. . .and here he is on creationism. Note the accurate characterization of evolution by natural selection: “The whole point of evolution is that random things just happened, and the useful ones hung around.”
Reader Barrie called my attention to an article in The Independent that offers some good news: Britan’s NHS, based on a 48-page document about items that shouldn’t be prescribed in primary care medicine, seems set to stop prescribing Magic Water, otherwise known as homeopathic medicine.
The motivation for the whole document was to eliminate, as a cost-cutting measure, those prescribed items that were of low clinical effectiveness. So there are many drugs listed, but on page 14 you’ll find this:
Actually, given Prince Charles’s fondness for this quackery (he even uses it own his own farm animals), I’m surprised the expenditure by the NHS is less than £100,000 per year, but it sends an important signal to people that the government health agency sees homeopathy as ineffective. Now I’m sure that patients who want Magic Water can still buy it themselves, but at least doctors can’t prescribe it.
Here’s a tw**t from Simon Enright, the Director of Communications for NHS Britain, laying out some of the conclusions and problems with eliminating homeopathy.
I’m not sure where his seven points come from (they’re not in the big document), but one struck me: “As well as primary care prescribing, there are two homeopathic hospitals affiliated to NHS Trusts in Bristol and at University College London Hospitals (UCLH).”
Seriously—government-funded homeopathic hospitals? I have no idea what they are, but perhaps a British reader can describe them. What kind of treatment do they offer? Is there anything besides Magic Water on tap?
When I got the latest attempted comment defending chiropractic “medicine” on my website, I had a déjà vu moment, as if I’d seen that kind of language before. And then I remembered—it was on a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap!
I don’t know how many people use this wonderful liquid soap, which comes in varieties like lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint (I prefer the original peppermint), but it smells great and is useful for all kinds of tasks. You can even brush your teeth with it! It was popular in the Sixties, beloved by hippies, but it’s still sold in a lot of places (Trader Joe’s, for instance, which is where I get mine), and it’s not expensive.
The soap was invented by Emanuel Bronner (1908-1997), a German-American Jew who used his products to expound his philosophy: a “Moral ABC” connected to Judaism and world unity. To promulgate his ideas, he crowded the labels of his soaps with all kinds of bizarre and unhinged statements in tiny print, generously larded with exclamation marks. Here’s a sample:
An enlargement of a small bit of the label:
Besides the soap being excellent and nice-smelling, you could spend hours reading the label, and I still remember many of the statements, like “Okay! Okay!” Here’s what a whole label looks like (you won’t be able to read it, but you can see a readable version here).
Although Bronner died in 1997, the soap is still great and the labels still bizarre.
But I digress. Compare the label of those soaps with this comment from “MILCOON” that I got about one of my anti-chiropractic posts, “More chiropractic shenanigans” (it’s reproduced exactly as I got it):
I’ve heard plenty of people say they have had good results from a Chiro!
Yes some chiropractors don’t care about their patients, but NOT ALL of them!!!
Example 1- lady had migraines for well over 12months suffering every couple of weeks with bad migraines doc no answers. Paid for scan privately still no answers!! Few Treatments with chiropractor no complaint of migraine for months and months!
Example 2- lower back pain and sciatica, seeing physio for months no better! 2 treatments with a Chiro already noticed improvement!
And finally about 4 or 5 examples of persons attending appointments at a Chiro when their doctor has not offered any kind of referral to see a specialist and Chiro has said to them you must ask for a scan or a referral for so and so. All have resulted in findings of health problems!!!
1 of which a cancer was discovered! The partner of the person who sadly passed away was supremely grateful because they found out and were able to spend their last days together as DOCTORS couldn’t do anything to save them!!!!
There are good and bad in EVERY single profession and most likely you will hear about the bad!! Chiropractic clearly works for some people! Not every Chiro is good! But not every chiro is bad or a money grabber! As the same with doctors not all of them are good!!! Not all of them genuinely care about their patients either!! Unfortunately it’s the way things are!! It’s life! Chiro works for some but not others! If you want to try it then why not. Instead of going to the doctors that prescribe pills with endless lists of side affects!
You’re suggesting most chiros are “lining their pockets?”
So people have cancer and the pharmaceutical companies make drugs for people with cancer (or other diseases) are these companies reducing the cost of the drugs to help people live and survive???… or are they continuing to line their pockets???.! I remember a few years ago the NHS saying they would have to stop buying a certain cancer drug because they couldn’t afford it! The pharmaceutical companies don’t then offer it at a lower cost because they want to continue to make their BILLIONS!!!!!! Doctors are a pharmaceutical companies dream (money, money, money!)
I swear to Ceiling Cat that this is just like a Dr. Bronner’s label. MILCOON could get a job writing for them. Okay! Okay!
Such are the followers of chiropractic, though I hasten to add that some of them aren’t this unhinged.
______
UPDATE: This just in: another comment from a chiropractor, who identifies himself as Dr. Christopher Perry. I don’t know what to make of this comment, which seems to both laud and diss his profession. (Poor writing seems to characterize this profession.) Would you want this guy’s hands on your spine? (Note: it’s reproduced exactly as it came in.)
Dr Christopher Perry
As a chiropractor I know that the scientific evidence currently shows the chiropractic is an excellent form of healthcare. As a profession it is nothing more than a healthcare version of used car salesman peddling lemons. The AMA has succeeded in marginalizing chiropractic. As a veteran chiropractor of 30 years once told me the American public is too stupid to understand chiropractic. The AMA and the pharmaceutical industry has one So stick a fork in it chiropractic the fat lady has sung. And if you haven’t noticed everyone is fat
After my denunciation by chiropractors and their advocates over the last few days—opprobrium that I welcome—Reader Pliny the in Between, whose website is The Far Corner Cafe, put together a series of drawings showing how spinal manipulation, such as that practiced by chiropractors, could produce a stroke. This, for instance, is what a real doctor, Orac, thinks may have caused the death of model Katie May (read his earlier post on this as well). May, 34, went to a chiropractor for a “neck adjustment” after a fall in 2016 that caused her neck pain; she had a stroke almost immediately after the adjustment, and died three days later.
Click on the screenshots to enlarge each of the five diagrams.
Here is what Orac concludes about Katie May’s death:
If you cringe when you hear the pop during the violent twist given to the neck, you’re not alone. So do I. It is that “high velocity, low amplitude” (HVLA) twist that can injure the intima of the artery, setting up the condition for a stroke. What surprises me is that the risk isn’t much higher than what studies show. The human body is more resilient than one would imagine, and, absent pre-existing atherosclerotic disease, the risk remains low. On the other hand, given that there is no benefit from HVLA chiropractic neck manipulation, the risk-benefit ratio is basically infinity, because the potential benefit is zero. Also, the risk might be small, but, as Katie May shows us, the the consequences of that risk can be catastrophic.
Another aspect I discussed was whether Katie May’s stroke could have been due to the trauma she suffered at her photo shoot a day or two before her first chiropractic manipulation. Now that we know, assuming that TMZ is accurately relaying the results of the coroner’s report, that May had a tear in her left vertebral artery, it’s almost certain that the chiropractor accidentally killed her through neck manipulation. That is what the coroner concluded, that this injury to her vertebral artery occurred during chiropractic neck manipulation.
In the end, there is no longer any reasonable doubt. Katie May’s death was unnecessary and due to her subjecting herself to the quackery that is chiropractic.
