Homeopaths run their own version of drug trials with provings. However, rather than scrupulous recruitment, careful screening, well-controlled conditions, there is a rather more Blue Peter approach to these tests. In a rather charming ritual that calls upon the great tradition of self-experimenters, a group of volunteers (varies in number, it can be 1-30), take frequent doses of the remedy that is undergoing proving, over the course of two or more days. At specified times of the day, the volunteers journalled the mental, physical, emotional sensations and dreams that they experienced not only during this assessment but perhaps for several months afterwards. The collection of responses was compiled into the drug picture – and this informed therapeutic recommendations and prescribing.

All of which seems a little homegrown but essentially harmless in itself for that period in history. Apparently, however, some contemporaries had a less charitable perspective on the justification for some aspects of provings. James Young Simpson provides a wry footnote about the provings. Hahnemann was insistent that his medicines should be tested on both men and women to ascertain any differences “in reference to the sexual system”. The London Medical Gazette remarked that proving records contained revelations and language of “astounding impurity”. Dr Bushnan noted Hahnemann’s influence and wrote: “we have to thank this law for the abominable and filthy character of many of the homoeopathic writings”.

It is possibly little wonder that some homeopaths find modern trials for drugs or other interventions to be a tad dull, boring and grey by contrast or even inimical to evaluating the value of homeopathy. Holly Day is studying:

the development of homoeopathic proving techniques in the light of historical, social and cultural influences. In essence, the aim is to identify the reasons and circumstances prompting contemporary variances in proving procedures. Emphasis is placed upon the rationale underlying individual approaches, whilst also situating beliefs within particular research philosophies.

Rather miserably for homeopaths who enjoy this high-engagement and somewhat colourful way of appraising their remedies, it seems that there are moves to formalise the proving procedures and make them more quantitative than qualitative.^[1]

The most recent review of proving studies indicated that provings are generally of poor methodological quality. Methods to improve the quality and scientific rigour are needed to critically assess the clinical basis of homeopathy. This article describes a methodology using a symptom diary with a selection of predefined remedy specific symptoms (proving questionnaire). The proving questionnaire was developed as an alternative to the traditional qualitative proving methods in an attempt to provide a quantitative method that could rigorously validate the original provings.

I haven’t seen the original paper so it is possible that the authors discuss the possibility that it might not be possible to validate the provings for therapeutic purposes (however, as one of the authors seems to practise as a homeopath, perhaps not). Maybe this is a rigorous examination of how homeopathy might be subjected to a robust examination, or maybe it’s just an attempt to tell followers of the cargo cult how they might improve the shape of their earphones.^(a)

Notes

(a) Feynman, R. Caltech commencement address given in 1974.

I think the educational and psychological studies I mentioned are examples of what I would like to call cargo cult science. In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they’ve arranged to imitate things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas–he’s the controller–and they wait for the airplanes to land. They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn’t work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential, because the planes don’t land.

Now it behooves me, of course, to tell you what they’re missing. But it would be just about as difficult to explain to the South Sea Islanders how they have to arrange things so that they get some wealth in their system. It is not something simple like telling them how to improve the shapes of the earphones.

References

[1] Brien S, Lewith G. Assessing homeopathic proving using questionnaire methodology: consideration and implications for future studies. Forsch Komplementarmed Klass Naturheilkd. 2005 Jun;12(3):152-8.

• Behind the airbrush: The real Kate Moss reveals her wobbly thighs as she struts around LA in denim hotpants | Mail Online
  "The 34-year-old stepped out in LA yesterday in a pair of merciless cut-off denim shorts that showed the supermodel has succumbed to dreaded cellulite and wobbly skin." My goodness, looking her age when she is scrutinised up close. A secular hijab for women is looking like more and more of a defence mechanism.
  (tags: DailyMail Kate Moss cellulite women)
• How can I protect my daughter in a society that sexualises children, asks Ulrika Jonsson | Mail Online
  "What on earth is wrong with the world? Since when did we think it was sensible to encourage our little girls to regard themselves as sexual objects – desperate to be slim and with faces slathered in make-up?
  So I was shocked but, sadly, not surprised to read that a recent survey had found that as many as one third of ten-year-old girls are worried about their body image. By the time they reach the age of 14, that figure rises to almost half." Well, there are probably many parts to this answer – some of them might have some relationship to some of Jonsson's own career activities and the editorial line that is favoured by the paper in which she writes.
  (tags: DailyMail Ulrika Jonsson daughter sexualise children weight)

• 'I'm in better shape that ever,' says Kate Beckinsale as she shows off her incredible figure in a new photoshoot | Mail Online
  "She says: 'I'm amazed that people obsess over my body image so much. Why do we encourage this war on women's bodies? It's a horrendous way to live, and I refuse to." Says the woman with a former eating disorder and who is appearing in what my mother would have called a scantily-clad state, on the front cover of a glossy magazine.
  (tags: DailyMail Kate Beckinsale anorexia women body image)
• The beauty creams with nanoparticles that could poison your body | Mail Online
  "Which? said: 'Our experts raised particular concerns about potential toxicity of fullerenes if they were able to penetrate the skin. They were also concerned about the widespread use of nano titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in sunscreens, when further research still needs to be done on their safety in nano form.'
  Some beauty firms are also using nano silver, which has anti-bacterial properties, in products such as toothpaste. But Which? says there are fears it may be toxic.
  Sue Davies, of Which?, said: 'The cosmetics industry needs to stop burying its head in the sand and come clean about how it is using nanotechnology."

  Beyond this, some of these nanoparticles may only be effective when used in radiotherapy treatments.

  (tags: nanotechnology particles cosmetics DailyMail toxins)

• Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: Moonwalk Memories
  This is just a charming story about a father-son relationship, the excitement at the time of the moon landing and the hope that it embodied, and also the fierce work ethic of an employer.
  (tags: father son moon landing work ethic)
• The Austerity Issue: don't panic – This Britain, UK – The Independent
  Nicely timed for this author. With luck, the book is less trite than this article because this is an interesting topic and I have been interested in the Mass Observation project for some time. ""No sooner did we awake from the six years' nightmare of war and feel free to enjoy life once more, than the means to do so immediately became even scantier than they had been during the war," lamented Anthony Heap, a local government officer living near St Pancras, London, in his diary at the end of 1945. "Housing, food, clothing, fuel, beer, tobacco – all the ordinary comforts of life that we'd taken for granted before the war, and naturally expected to become more plentiful again when it ended, became instead more and more scarce and difficult to come by." Little did he, or anyone else, imagine the hard, stony road that lay ahead. It would be another nine years before rationing was finally ended in 1954, nine long years of attritional discomfort and privation."
  (tags: Independent austerity Britain rationing WWII David Kynaston)
• Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists: Jim Ottaviani: Books
  Interesting enough idea but poorly performed. Yet, oddly, I am not conjuring up a conspiracy about this – it is just plain, ordinary incompetence. But, yet again, a chance to tell some fascinating stories about women scientists has been lost.
  (tags: Dignifiying Science women Ottaviani)

The UK used to be known for quality publishing houses. So, what is happening with contemporary popular science books? Has the work of editing and printing popular science books been infiltrated by the humanities graduates that Ben Goldacre of badscience.net caricatures in Bad Science. You may recall that Bad Science does not have an index and neither does Lewis Smith’s Why the Lion Grew Its Mane.

When I was little I met children from Africa and India who had at least a passing familiarity with exotic animals or actually claimed to have had them for pets and they had photographs and stories to prove it: real life versions of Clare Turlay Newberry’s Herbert the Lion. Add Daktari‘s Clarence the cross-eyed lion to the mix and it’s understandable that I collected pictures of lions and made up stories about them. For much of my life, I’ve had to fend off bookmarks, fridge magnets and the usual stuff that people give you when they think that ‘having an interest’ in a topic is a euphemism for a deep longing to start a collection of cutesy china figures or toffee tins.

As it is, I receive many books about lions as gifts; understandably, most of the time, people just select these because they have good photographs and they don’t pay attention to the content. So, I’m expecting to receive a copy of Why the Lion Grew Its Mane in the not too distant future and my social dilemma will be whether I might (for the first time ever) ask someone if they still have the receipt so I can exchange it or, yet again, resign myself to looking at the photographs and ignoring the content.

What makes this book particularly irritating is that it has not only been lavishly praised but the Royal Society has lent its imprimatur of respectability to the book by longlisting it for the 2008 Royal Society General Prize for Science Books. Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology has recently posted Why the Lion Grew Its Mane, a book review. Oddly enough, the lavish and spectacular photographs have not so bedazzled him that he is unable to see some critical flaws in the content.

Basically what we have here is a hand-picked selection of newish science stories that are cool, involving charismatic or neat subjects…

Here they are – together – bound up in a glossy, very attractive, large format, ‘coffee table’ book. Excellent photos appear throughout and the book really is a joy to look at. The volume is in fact so attractive that I tried hard not to be nasty about it, but read on…

Why manes are so variable is clearly a complex subject and there are several competing views; you might have recognised that none of this really tells you ‘Why the lion grew its mane’. I recognise that – given the short, snappy text and need to summarise – Smith was not able to indulge in complex, detailed discussions of the subjects he covered. Nevertheless, as demonstrated by the section on lions, I was left throughout the book with the impression that Smith had based his text on recent reports alone, and as a result his text merely presents one, recently mooted opinion on any given subject. Furthermore, his text often seems naïve in that it doesn’t seem informed by the work that has gone before…

Naish goes on to make some cogent points about the taxonomy and phylogeny of gulls as this seems to be rather a sore point concerning Smith’s somewhat slapdash treatment of the topic. Naish points out that Smith seems unaware that the excitment over the Kayan Mentarang animal was embarrassingly premature and it has been said for quite some time that this All New, Previously Unknown viverrid is a plain, ordinary giant flying squirrel (I take it that Smith’s face should be flaming with shame over this blunder; it’s not up there with confusing goats and unicorns but still blushworthy).

Naish is ultimately generous about the book because of the lavish illustrations.

A major gripe I have is that there is no bibliography whatsoever. I’m not entirely stupid: I know full well that publishers often don’t want authors citing references and listing papers and articles at the back of a book. But this book has nothing at all; at the very least it could have included tiny (8-point or something) ‘source notes’ or such on each page (there is plenty enough space on the pages for this). A list of journal titles is given in the acknowledgements, but that’s because Smith is acknowledging help, not citing sources. There is also, sin of sins, no index.

Anyway, enough complaining; this is a lavishly illustrated book that, despite my dissatisfaction, does a great job of bringing the wonder of science to the masses. Smith’s discussions of the discoveries he writes about are short, succinct and only really tell the highlights.

However, I am cantakerous and curmudgeonly. Naish has highlighted some inaccuracies that mar the parts of the book that he felt competent to review. It is possible that other reviewers with some expert knowledge might find similar flaws elsewhere in the content. In these days when students at reputable universities cheerfully admit to raiding Google and Wikipedia for their coursework, is it too much to expect some decent fact-checking and referencing? Have we completely lost sight of not only original work but the meaning of scholarship or are scholarship and popular science on separate poles?

Yet again, the popular science book is an awkward hybrid. Do you ‘bring the wonder of science to the masses’ by feeding us inaccuracies and shoddy research? Is there one set of standards for judging yet another lousy research-light diet book but these inaccuracies are somehow OK because of the Amsel Adams-quality eye-candy and because the content is up to the minute and is therefore exonerated from any need to place it in context of related research?

UK publishers seem to have a stable of Boris Gudunovs when it comes to editing popular science books. Are the editors all humanities graduates who are out to undermine science or does some of the responsibility lie with science journalists who compile books from recent news stories rather than writing books that reflect time-consuming research? I’m one of the masses and this just isn’t good enough.

Notes

(a) Coverdale Bible aka “Bug Bible” because Psalms 91:5 read: “Thou shall not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night”. Middle English bugge is (loosely) the source of boogie or bogey man; it originally meant a phantom or ghost.

(b) Pre-eminent among notable printed bibles is the King James Bible that has spawned a mass of errors that are so remarkable that they are used to name particular versions: Vinegar Bible in which the parable of the vineyards turns a little sour; Unrighteous Bible missed the lesson about double negatives and consequently I Corinthians 6:9 admonished “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?…”; Blasphemous Comma Bible is another lesson in the importance of paying attention to grammar and punctuation because Luke 23:32 this version read “And there were also two other malefactors [crucified with Jesus].” It should have read “And there were also two other, malefactors”; most famously, Wicked Bible renders the 7th commandment as “Thou shalt commit adultery”.

• My wife wears the hijab. I wish she didn't | Life and style | The Observer
  Interesting account uxorial differences relating to hijab: husband does not support the wearing yet is oddly held accountable for oppressing his wife with it. It is fascinating when this happens – if my mother-in-law ever saw my husband badly-dressed she would certainly blame me rather than him.

  Tangentially, but this is the logical end-point of much of the consumerist reporting of women who show the 7 signs of ageing. When will the Daily Mail, Loaded or Heat start offering advance 'fun' Christmas gifts of secular hijab – maybe they will even subsidise the costs as a service to readers. This will guarantee hours of fun for the gift-givers and plenty of rows, hurt feelings and crying jags when people open their Secret Santa gifts or even on Christmas Day.

  A truly splendid, post-modern and witty hijab would look like a paper bag – it might even have some Bernard Manning/Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross witticisms written on it.

  (tags: hijab husband wife marriage oppression postmodern Ross Brand Manning DailyMail)
• The Frontal Cortex : Self-Control and the Prefrontal Cortex
  It seems that, when taxed, the pre-frontal cortex (loosely, a prime mover in self-control) is a pushover in a hand to hand combat with 'pleasure centres' of the brain. This may or may not explain a lot. However, this is a discussion that describes experiments involving food – marshmallow, chocolate cake, fruit salad – so there is something to relate to for all the family.
  (tags: selfcontrol psychology cognition addiction brain prefrontal cortex)
• Fragrant Home: 13 Simmering Pot Recipes » TipNut.com
  Many homes don't need this added humidity at present. However, if you are clearing out a room this is horribly stuffy, while the room is airing, putting one of these recipes in a secure candle stove can help (put tile or other heat-proof surface underneath; and use appropriate safety measures). It's what your clementine and orange peels are for (you can't compost them and unless you have a very sheltered barbecue pit, BBQ season is over). It's also an excellent way of using up out of date spices without guilt. So, simmering pots or muslin drawer fragrance bags (by which I mean elderly tights that are cobwebbed as opposed to cobweb fine – who doesn't have better things to do with muslin). You too can be a mulled-wine scented cliche.
  (tags: simmering pot fragrance home)
• Achat de gousses de vanille bourbon de Madagascar en Europe : Bienvenue sur le site de la vanille Riziky.be
  I went here in search of vanilla beans. I found this and experienced a cuteness attack on the scale of zooborns.com. The vanilla beans do look very fine and with any luck I shall soon be laying some down for vanilla sugar for the upcoming holidays (mince pie eating is effectively a competitive sport in my family). Some people know how to seize life by the throat.
  (tags: vanilla bean Madagascar riziky)
• Mark Johnson on the need to teach emotional health | Society | The Guardian
  "Why not tackle something so fundamental that it is undermining many of our kids' ability to learn? I'm talking about mental and emotional health.

  Too many children live with a dysfunctionality that goes back generations. They might be living with poverty, unemployment, violence, drug use, acute emotional problems, varying degrees of neglect and abuse." Yes, this is true. Yet, despite the money and resources that are supposed to address this, little is improving because it isn't an issue with a transfer of improvement from school to home. Disturbing and dispiriting.

  (tags: MarkJohnson emotional health Guardian education children mentalhealth transfer)

• E-mail error ends up on road sign | BBC NEWS | Wales
  You must use people who understand the language – this expensive mistake is one of the reasons it should be a no-brainer.
  (tags: email error roadsign Welsh BBC language translation humour Wales)

• One in five GCSE pupils thinks the Sun orbits the Earth: Take our test to see if you can do any better! | Mail Online
  I remember the tedium of drawing apparatus for chemistry. The finnicky detail of retorts, crucibles, retort flasks with bungs.

  The excitement of reading these botanical questions again for biology – but where are the questions about soil analysis? It is easy to criticise the differences however the modern exams seem to be so modular it is difficult to generalise on what they indicate about the state of scientific knowledge. Years ago, a module at this level would have been taken by people who tood CSEs (Certificate of Secondary Education) rather than the ‘O’ Level – a better comparison would be with a CSE paper and this GCSE.

  (tags: DailyMail GCSE OLevel biology chemistry)
• These Days (Jackson Browne song) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  "Don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them": fine discussion of These Days and its various covers and evolutions.

  BBC4 broadcast a fascinating overview of the shift of power from NY to LA in music. David Geffen and Asylum Records; Warner Reprise; Joni Mitchell; Carol King; Linda Ronstadt; James Taylor; Jackon Browne among others. The importance of The Troubador and then Roxy as venues and gathering-places for artistes and creative talent.

  (tags: Jackson Browne LA music TheseDays wikipedia failure)

• Half of Cambridge students admit cheating – Times Online
  It seems that Google and wikipedia are the friends of fed-up students who have little interest in their non-assessed course-work. 62% of law students admitted to this – it would be interesting to know if this is for areas like Roman Law or topics for which they can not seem the relevance.
  (tags: Cambridge cheating plagiarism Times)
• Coade's Artificial Stone Works | British History Online
  "The composition and method of manufacture of Coade stone are not fully known, but the finds on the site during excavations for the Festival of Britain show that the materials were finely ground and after mixing were either modelled or cast in moulds or cast and then finished by a modeller. They were fired in a muffle furnace. The grindstone, of granite, has been placed outside the Royal Festival Hall and a number of the moulds, casts and specimens of the finished product have been preserved."

  Eleanor Coade sounds like a remarkable woman. It is interesting that it has so obviously stood the test of time in this way.

  From: 'Coade's Artificial Stone Works', Survey of London: volume 23: Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall (1951), pp. 58-61. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47044. Date accessed: 31 October 2008.
  Unlike the above claim, others say the recipe is not lost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coade_stone

  (tags: Eleanor Coade stone artificialstone history women building art craft)
• Fergie's make-up disaster: Blotchy skin as the Duchess has a ball with Princess Beatrice | Mail Online
  So, she looks good, but that's not enough because she must be subjected to a microscope and look good under a spotlight.
  (tags: makeup Fergie photograph women DailyMail)
• If you thought Kate Moss looked bad getting ON the plane, you should see her getting OFF | Mail Online
  "The notoriously hard partying model looked washed-out, wrinkled and every inch her 34 years.

  But as the star stepped off her long haul flight at LAX airport today, it was startlingly clear the 11-hour flight had left her skin in an even worse state." Looking 34 years-old. There should be a bell to alert people so they might avert their eyes.

  (tags: KateMoss skin age women DailyMail)
• Electricity Running Cost Calculator from UK Power
  Useful calculator for light family discussions about the relative merits of various electrical appliances.
  (tags: energy calculator electricity money power cost)

• Electricity Running Cost Calculator from UK Power
  Useful calculator for light family discussions about the relative merits of various electrical appliances.
  (tags: energy calculator electricity money power cost)
• www.theyellowhouse.info
  Project to create a relatively energy efficient 1930s ex-Local Authority house.
  (tags: green environment energy yellowhouse conservation insulation)
• Feeding America
  "Feeding America project has created an online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. The digital archive includes page images of 76 cookbooks from the MSU Library's collection as well as searchable full-text transcriptions." Fascinating about USA food, it would be good to know more about books in other countries.
  (tags: culture food history USA cooking printing politics dissemination ingredients)
• Food Timeline: food history & historic recipes
  "Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip…and why?
  Welcome to the Food Timeline!" Some interesting ingredients and food facts: good to browe.
  (tags: culture recipe food education history timeline)
• Curly Wurly: How To Be Worldly
  My Domestic Science teacher never told us stuff like this: presumably, this was far too worldly for a school that wouldn't teach Grapes of Wrath because it contains an indecent scene. No wonder the tomato is such a significant cultural artefact.
  (tags: worldly tomato food history culture)
• Curly Wurly: Bananas Take A Bow
  The splendid banana, tinned pineapple and tinned salmon salad. Truly a classic of its genre and time.
  (tags: banana cookbook salmon salad culture cooking)
• PopCult Magazine/Horrific Food of the 1970s
  Truly horrendous yet oddly compelling
  (tags: food 1970 popcult retro)
• Degraded, confused and very, very tearful: How one contestant felt after Gok Wan's Miss Naked Beauty parade | Mail Online
  "'When we turned up at the swimming pool, we still had no idea we were in a tacky reality show,' says Denise, a 43-year-old receptionist from London. 'I thought we were there for a worthwhile documentary about the beauty industry.'" Do these 'reality shows' have any input from ethicists or is there no shared understanding of ethics when it comes to such programmes? Possibly some of the women are wannabe 'slebs but others were convinced that this would be empowering because of what they have seen of Gok Wan's previous work or read about it? If the women were mislead by zealous researchers this looks a little like the fibs told by sales people. When are such programmes going to come with as much small print as adverts? Warning, the production team edit footage to create particular characters and stories. You may not receive an accurate impression of what happened. People may have been emotionally damaged by their treatment but no bones broken.
  (tags: DailyMail GokWan MissNakedBeauty realityTV)