Ars technica wrote an article using explanations of homeopathy as an example of how you can tell pseudoscience from real science. It’s not the most clearly written argument, but it covers the points.
A quick explanation of homeopathy: you put some “stuff” in water, then you dilute it. The real kicker is that in homeopathy you dilute the original solution so much that there are zero molecules of the original “stuff” in it. In fact, it’s claimed that the more you dilute it the more powerful it gets. When you drink the water it will have medicinal powers as a result of the water having “memory” of the stuff that was in it. And there really are zero molecules of stuff in the water. Let’s be clear: homeopathy has beneficial effect only through the placebo effect. There’s no evidence at all that there is such a thing as “water memory” or an inverse dose response (more diluted water works better).
Continue reading ‘Homeopathy as a case study of bad science’