2019/06/13 by Maxim Sukharev, Sukharev, Maxim
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1906.06165
arxiv created 2019/06/13 · openalex publication_date 2019/06/13 · arxiv updated 2019/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Have you ever wondered why we have never heard of psychics and palm readers winning millions of dollars in state or local lotteries or becoming Wall Street wolfs? Neither have I. Yet we are constantly bombarded by tabloid news on how vaccines cause autism (hint: they do not), or some unknown firm building a mega-drive that defies the laws of physics (nope, that drive does not work either). And the list continues on and on and on. Sometimes it looks quite legit as, say, various natural vitamin supplements that supposedly increase something that cannot be increased, or enhance something else that is most likely impossible to enhance by simply swallowing a few pills. Or constantly evolving diets that sure work giving a false relieve to those who really need to stop eating too much and actually pay frequent visits to a local gym. It is however understandable that most of us fall for such products and news just because we cannot be experts in everything, and we tend to trust various mass-media sources without even a glimpse of skepticism. So how can we distinguish between baloney statements and real exciting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs? In what follows I will try to do my best to provide a simple how-to user guide to debunking pseudoscientific claims.