Fed up of trying to find that bit you were reading the other day? So was I – so I started noting points that were of interest to me. If you are having the same trouble, why not try my incomplete, half-assed index of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science book? If there’s anything you can’t find in the book or on this page then leave a comment and I will try to find it for you, and add it to my index. If Ben really was a Big Pharma stooge they’d have paid for an indexer for his book. Incidentally, genuine professional indexers can be found by visiting the Society of Indexers. Their webpage has a site index and I sometimes wonder if SOI members sit around slagging it off and complaining that they’d have done it better. I like to think they do. They’d probably weep if they came across my efforts here.
“Sharp scissors only mummy can use” – p14
Aids (and Patrick Holford) – pp162-164
(and Homeopathy) – p82
Antioxidants – pp99-111
Aqua Detox – See Detox
Autism – see MMR
Barbie Doll – see Detox.
(see also – Barbie and GI Joe p27)
Big Pharma – pp181-186
Blinding – see Fair Trials
Bogus Explanations – pp15-17
Brain Buttons – pp13-14
Brain Gym – pp13-20
Bullshitting – pp88-89
Cherry Picking – pp97-99
Chlorophyll – pp116-118
Cognitive Bias – pp225-238
Cosmetics – pp21-27
CV (and Patrick Holford) – pp173-174
(and Gillian McKeith) – pp123-125
Detox – pp2-12
Dunning, David – pp267-269
Durham – pp136-160
Ear Candles – see Detox
Education – see Brain Gym; Fish Oils for Schools. For Professor Patrick Holford see pp170-180
Equation stories – pp208-209
Equazen – pp136-160
Fish Oils For Schools – pp136-160
Foot pads – see Detox
Ford, Dave – pp136-160
Graham, Sylvester – p113
Hadacol – pp114-115
Hawthorne Effect – p139
Health Scares – pp261-314
Holford, Patrick – pp161-180
Homeopathy – pp28-62
(and dilution) – pp33-36;
(and Fair Trials) – pp36-54
Hopi Ear Candles – see Detox
In Vitro Studies – pp93-97
Kellogg, John Harvey – pp113-114
Kruger, Justin – pp267-269
Lab Bench Studies – see In Vitro
Le Blanc, Dudley J – see Hadacol
Malaria (Newsnight Sting) – pp84-85
McKeith, Gillian – pp112-135
Media – pp207-224. See also MMR
Meta Analysis – see Fair Trials
MMR – pp273-314
Moerman, Daniel – see pp66-67; pp80-81
Neuroscience – see Bogus Explanations
Nutritionists – pp86-111; pp112-135; pp161-180
Old Testament (first trial) – see Fair Trials
Pauling, Linus – pp97-99
Pentapeptides – see cosmetics
Placebo – pp63-68
Q-Link Pendant – pp175-176
Quesalid – p77
Randomization – see Fair Trials
Randomness – pp226-228
Regression to the mean – see Fair Trials; also pp228-229
Rituals – p11
Sports Illustrated Jinx – see Fair Trials
Sykes, Kathy – pp64-65
Thalidomide – pp269-271
Vaccines – see MMR
Van Straten, Michael – pp87-89; pp93-94
Vioxx – pp201-202
Wakefield, Andrew – see MMR
Water Pseudoscience – see Brain Gym
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October 23, 2008 at 3:36 am
[...] The single greatest oversight is the lack of an index. I skimmed the book before settling down to read it and it was obvious that more stringent editing would have improved the book, highlighted some recurrent themes and strengthened the overall message: an index would have made the book easier to read and allowed the reader to locate relevant explanations. An index might also have helped the editor to spot the inconsistencies (of which, more later) that lodge in the reader’s eye like so many grains of sand. (A frustrated Bad Science blogger has posted a partial index to Bad Science.) [...]
October 23, 2008 at 8:52 am
Haha, I’ve been referred to in the post trackbacked above as a “frustrated Bad Science blogger”. It’s true. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, but now it just looks like I’m a whinging old moaner. That’s also true, BTW.
Found this link via the trackback too: Nice review.
November 3, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I didn’t mean ‘frustrated’ in a negative fashion so much as, well, frustrated by the difficulty of trying to locate something in a fairly lengthy book that lacks an index. Now, if it were a 20 page Ladybird Guide To with plenty of pictures, the lack of an index is acceptable but not otherwise.
I couldn’t begin to comment on whether the “whinging old moaner” is a propos – but it was not my intention to imply that and I apologise if that is the way that it read.
November 3, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Don’t worry – no offence was taken Nellie.
January 11, 2009 at 6:11 pm
This site now has a more complete index available.
February 12, 2009 at 10:15 am
[...] from books so that other people don’t have to search around for them. See Gaylard, op cit, jdc and Oliolioli provide an index to Bad Science; NellieTAG provides a full list of references to [...]
June 10, 2009 at 1:31 pm
The 2009 edition I’m reading has a 12-page index.
June 10, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Cheers Al – out of interest, is it similar to the oliolioli version I link to in my above comment of January 11th?