Skeptoid

A quick look at many of the most common scientific study types, to help learn the terminology and some of the many ups and downs and ins and outs.

How is it possible for a sub-spotting blimp to complete its mission all by itself, its crew having mysteriously disappeared at some point during the flight?

A raft of corrections or errors made in previous Skeptoid episodes. Remember, if you ever find an error, please send it on in!

We look at twelve legendary places around the world that you've heard of, but may not know whether they're real or not.

Skeptoid answers student questions about hangovers, horse milk and manuka honey as miracle cures, car batteries stored on cement, translatability of ancient texts, and probiotics.

Skeptoid 5: Massacres, Monsters, and Miracles is a collection of 50 of the best episodes of the Skeptoid podcast, adapted for print. It will be fully indexed and referenced. But most of all, each of its 50 chapters will be a fascinating peek behind the urban legends we've all heard, to see what's truly going on.

Salt therapy is being touted as a new miracle treatment for just about anything. You relax in a cave made of salt and breathe salt dust. Why?

The famous 1967 Bigfoot film by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin was certainly the launch of the legend, but where did the film actually come from?

Few pseudosciences are believed as fervently by their proponents as alternative medicine. Today we answer some emails from alt-med proponents.

During the cold war, rumor has it that the American CIA conducted 20 years of illegal research on American citizens without their knowledge. How much truth is there to this?

If you can demonstrate that you have a power unknown to science under controlled conditions, there are many groups willing to pay you for the proof.

Old stories claim that a remote village of Eskimos disppeared in 1930, leaving everything behind. Some claim the people were all abducted by aliens.

Muzak has long been played to improve sales and increase worker productivity. But what can it really do under the microscope of science?

We to explore the question of whether Stanley Kubrick made The Shining as a confession that he was behind the alleged moon landing hoax; whether acupressure wristbands are a way to cure nausea or just a placebo; whether you should use hydrogen peroxide as a bactericide on minor wounds; the song Gloomy Sunday and if it has indeed been connected with an increased number of suicides; the true nature of whatever danger can be expected from common laser pointers; and whether we need to worry about hoards of human-animal hybrids swarming down from the mountains.

Not every law passed by legislature is based on sound science. All too often, ideologues try to use the cloak of sciencey-sounding language to fool lawmakers and the public alike.