"Slightly technical, eminently readable, consistently shocking, occasionally hectoring and unapologetically polemical . . . This is a book that deserves to be widely read, because anyone who does read it cannot help feeling both uncomfortable and angry."
—The Economist"Ben Goldacre has done it again . . . This is a morbidly fascinating and dispiriting account, yet one which deserves (and needs) to be read and acted upon without delay." —Dennis Rosen, The Boston Globe
"Read this book. It will make you mad, it will make you scared. And, hopefully, it will bring about some change." —Chris Lee, Ars Technica
"A thorough piece of investigative medical journalism. What keeps you turning its pages is the accessibility of Goldacres writing, . . . his genuine, indignant passion, his careful gathering of evidence and his use of stories, some of them personal, which bring the book to life." —Luisa Dillner, The Guardian
"Goldacres research is scrupulous, and lay readers may find themselves converted by his geeky ardor." —The New Yorker
"[A]n eye-opening glance into a world of experts who have failed us." —The New York Times Book Review
"In this searing exposé of the pharmaceutical industry, physician and journalist Goldacre uncovers a cesspool of corrupt practices designed to sell useless or dangerous drugs to an unsuspecting public . . . Goldacre conveys complicated scientific, medical, and ethical issues in simple, clear, plainspoken language that pulls no punches. The result is a smart, infuriating diagnosis of the rotten heart of the medical-industrial complex." —Publishers Weekly
"A useful guide for policymakers, doctors and the patients who need protection against deliberate disinformation." —Kirkus Reviews
"Goldacres essential exposé will prompt readers to ask more questions before automatically popping a doctor-prescribed pill." —Karen Springen, Booklist
Praise for Bad Science
"Smart, funny, clear, unflinching: Ben Goldacre is my hero." —Mary Roach, author of Stiff, Spook, and Bonk
"Ben Goldacre is exasperated . . . He is irked, vexed, bugged, ticked off at sometimes inadvertent (because of stupidity) but more often deliberate deceptions perpetrated in the name of science . . . Youll get a good grounding in the importance of evidence-based medicine . . . ‘Studies show is not good enough, he writes: ‘The plural of "anecdote" is not data." —Katherine Bouton, The New York Times
"One of the best books Ive ever read. It completely changed the way I saw the world. And I actually mean it." —Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist
"Ben Goldacre lucidly, and irreverently, debunks a frightening amount of pseudoscience, from cosmetics to dietary supplements to alternative medicine. If you want to read one book to become a better-informed consumer and citizen, read Bad Science." —Sandeep Jauhar, author of Intern
"This is a much-needed book. Ben Goldacre shows us—with hysterical wit—how to separate the scam artists from real science. In a world of misinformation, this is a rare gem." —Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek
"Ben Goldacre uses a brilliant mix of science and wit to challenge and investigate alternative therapists and the big pharmaceutical corporations. Bad Science is an invaluable tool for anybody who wants to protect themselves from the snake-oil salesmen of the twenty-first century." —Simon Singh, author of Big Bang and Fermats Last Theorem
"British physician and journalist Ben Goldacre takes aim at quack doctors, pharmaceutical companies and poorly designed studies in extraordinary fashion in Bad Science . . . Goldacre shines in a chapter about bad scientific studies by writing it from the perspective of a make-believe big pharma researcher who needs to bring a mediocre new drug to market. He explains exactly how to skew the data to show a positive result. ‘Im so good at this I scare myself, he writes. ‘Comes from reading too many rubbish trials." —Rachel Saslow, The Washington Post
"Funny and biting . . . While it is a very entertaining book, it also provides important insight into the horrifying outcomes that can result when willful anti-intellectualism is allowed equal footing with scientific methodology." —Dennis Rosen, The Boston Globe
"I hereby make the heretical argument that it is time to stop cramming kids heads with the Krebs cycle, Ohms law, and the myriad other facts that constitute todays science curricula. Instead, what we need to teach is the ability to detect Bad Science—BS, if you will. The reason we do science in the first place is so that ‘our own atomized experiences and prejudices dont mislead us, as Ben Goldacre of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine puts it in his new book, Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks. Understanding what counts as evidence should therefore trump memorizing the structural formulas for alkanes." —Sharon Begley, Newsweek.com
"Dr. Ben Goldacres UK bestseller Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks is finally in print in the USA, and Americans are lucky to have it. Goldacre writes a terrific Guardian column analyzing (and debunking) popular science reporting, and has been a star in the effort to set the record straight on woowoo ‘nutritionists, doctors who claim that AIDS can be cured with vitamns, and vaccination/autism scares. Bad Science is more than just a debunking expose (though its that): its a toolkit for critical thinking, a primer on statistics and valid study design, a guide to meta-analysis and other tools for uncovering and understanding truth . . . The book should be required reading for everyone who cares about health, science, and public policy." —BoingBoing.net