Is That a Fact?: Frauds, Quacks, and the Real Science of Everyday Life - Softcover

Dr. Joe Schwarcz is a professor of chemistry and the Director of the Office for Chemistry and Society at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He hosts a weekly phone-in radio show, is a regular on Canadian television, gives numerous public lectures, and writes columns for the Montreal Gazette. He has received many honours, including the prestigious American Chemical Society's Grady-Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public.

If you combined the rigorous scientific approach of Ben Goldacre (Bad Science, 2010) with the enthusiasm and outspoken prose of James Randi (the noted skeptic and debunker), you would have Joe Schwarcz, chemist, science writer, and radio host. Here, in his latest collection of essays, he tackles a wide variety of topics: bogus self-help products, quackery, homeopathy, misinformed celebrities (i.e., celebs who make ridiculous statements because they don’t know they’re misinformed), fish-oil supplements, weight-loss plans, Dr. Oz, Jamie Oliver, GMOs, and the list goes on. It’s important to note, too, that he doesn’t take a hard-core debunking tack to everything he discusses: the book is divided into three broad categories called black, gray, and white (black representing things for which there is no scientific evidence, white being those for which there is hard evidence, and gray being those in between). The author’s entertaining writing style and clear, precise explanations make the book a joy to read, and his choice of subjects is so wide-ranging that there really is something for everyone here. --David Pitt