Knowtex

"Paranthropology: Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal" is an anthology edited by Jack Hunter (PhD student at Bristol University). Its subject is the anthropology of paranormal phenomena.

Paul Kurtz, philosopher, father of secular humanism, active skeptic, founder of the CFI, among others, died yesterday.

It’s an elaborate placebo, and the relaxation and attention given patients is the only real “healing” going on.

I enjoy many TED talks. I especially enjoy them because I only watch them when someone else recommends one to me — I've got filters in place. The one time I tried to sit down and go through a couple of random TED talks, I was terribly disappointed.

Scientific research is difficult to do well, and people are flawed and biased. As Carl Sagan noted, science is not just an ideal abstraction, but is very much a human endeavor, and as such is messy and imperfect.

Bad news for Miss Cleo and other alleged clairvoyants: A new study has failed to find evidence that psychic ability is real.

In 2010, Daryl Bem of Cornell University published a paper which claimed subjects could recall certain words in an exercise better if they were then shown the words again - after they had handed in their test.

Chris French: Science progresses when repeat studies back or refute previous research, but getting 'replications' published can be a nightmare.

The French documentary film The Wall (Le mur), which takes issue with psychoanalytic views on autism, has caused some uproar over the past few months. France is one of the last remaining bulwarks of psychoanalysis, the theory and therapy devised by Sigmund Freud.

Sophie Robert and her film "Le Mur'' have been the targets of criticism from both the analysts who appear in the film and from within the country's psychoanalytic establishment.