Required References for Topics
If you wish to write a paper on one of the topics listed below, you MUST
read the references listed with the topic. You will be penalized for
ignoring critical references. Note that for any subject there will be
many more references than these, but these are required.
- Can mistletoe cure cancer?
- Does EMDR work?
- Alternative Medicine
- Trick or Treatment, Ernst & Singh
- Bigfoot
- The Making of Bigfoot, Greg Long
- Bigfoot Exposed : An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend. (Rowman & Littlefield) by Daegling, David J. (2005).
- Would you use pure nitrogen in your car tires?
- Do Americans really need vitamin pills?
- Are phthalates dangerous?
- How many famous paintings are actually forgeries?
- False Impressions, Thomas Hoving
- Health effects of carbon-fiber nanotubes
- John Frum and cargo cults
- The Feingold Diet
- HIV/AIDS denial
- Does faith healing really work?
- Are cloned animals safe to eat?
- Are genetically modified foods safe?
- Diploma mills
- Is secondhand smoke a health hazard?
- Morgellon's Disease - real or not?
- Does the death penalty deter crime?
- Is a little radiation good for you? (explore hormesis)
- Logic, Induction and Deduction, Occam's Razor
- Facts, Laws, and Theories; Paradigm Shifts
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn
- People Fooling Themselves: Threshold Phenomena; N-rays; Cold Fusion;
- N-Rays
-
Talk by Irving Langmuir
- "New Light on Old Rays: N Rays"; Robert T. Lagemann;
American Journal of Physics 45 (3): 281-284 (March 1977)
- The n-Rays; Robert Wood; Nature (Vol 70, p.530, 29 September 1904)
- Cold Fusion
- Voodoo Science; Robert Park
- Bad Science, Gary Taubes
- Yes, We Have no Neutrons; A.K. Dewdney
- Too Hot to Handle; Frank Close
- The Scientific Fiasco of the Century; John Huizenga
- Element 118
- This one now appears (2013) to have been synthesized, but there were fraudulent claims earlier.
- Evolution and Creationism, Intelligent Design
- Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin
- Kitzmiller et all vs. Dover Area School District et all
- The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
- other resources available on the Intelligent Design Creationism course page.
- Pseudoscience: Dowsing;
- Astrology
- Astrology: True or False? Culver & Ianna
- The references in "An Indian Test of Indian Astrology" by Jayant V. Narlikar in Skeptical Inquirer. 37.2 (March-April 2013) p45.
- Cold Reading: Fortune Telling; Tarot Cards; Palmistry
- Statistics and Coincidence: Pyramidology; Hidden codes; the Cabala
- What is Evidence? the Double-blind Test, Confirmation Bias
- Extraterrestrial Life, SETI
- Recycling
- Eight Great Myths of Recycling; Daniel Benjamin
- Recycling vs. Garbage; John Tierney
- Aliens
- Alien Abductions
- Area 51
- Flying Saucers/UFOs
- Paranormal Phenomena: ESP; Psychics; Telekinesis; Remote Viewing; Spoon Bending; Transcendental Meditation; Ghosts; the Supernatural; Guardian Angels
- Bermuda Triangle
- The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved by Larry Kusche
- Alternative Medicine: the Placebo Effec
- Homeopathy
- Magnet therapy
- Reflexology
Hoaxes: Schoen at Bell Labs; the Cottingley Fairies
- Crop Circles
- Loch Ness Monster
- Piltdown Man
- Vitamin O
- Cardiff Giant
- Psychic Surgery
Do Cellphones Cause Cancer?
- INTERPHONE study - International Journal of Epidemiology, 2010 June;
39(3); 675-694
- Danish Cohort Study (update) - Journal of National Cancer Institute 6 Dec 2006.
Violation of Physics Law: Perpetual Motion Machines - Type 1 and Type 2; Free-Energy Devices; Over Unity Devices
Soviet Biology, Lysenkoism
- V. Soifer, Lysenko and the tragedy of Soviet science, Rutgers, 1994
- D. Joravsky, The Lysenko affair, Cambridge University Press,1970
- W. Gratzer, The undegrowth of science, Oxford University Press, 2000
The Crackpot Index, the Flat Earth Society
Did we really land on the Moon? Conspiracy theories.
- Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait
Einstein's Special Relativity - a target for crackpots
Global Warming (We suggest that you avoid this topic unless you are will to read all these sources.)