Double Standards - Part the First

A constant and repeating pattern of criticism of the alternative/complementery/natural medicine field from the like of Edzard Ernst et al. is that it's largely based on anectdotal evidence and poor science. Leaving aside the fact the empiricism is, of itself, a valid theoretical model and that much of Ernst's work is based on anaylsis of the research of others( so-called meta-anylsis), not original work, have we not just spent upwards of $3 billion and 15-20 years to build the largest detector of a theorectical particle, the Higgs boson? Interestingly, even if they fail to find said miniscule item this will be considered money well spent. Absence of evidence is, as they say, not evidence of absence.

World Ends Wednesday. Put It In Your Diary

Isn't science brilliant! The finest brains of the human race never tire of smashing things up. Pulling them apart to see what happens. 

Pull the wings off flies in the classroom and you're sent to bed without your tea, do it in a laboratory and your liable to be lined up for a Nobel Prize or two. No wonder we're confused.

Tomorrow they fire up the Large Hadron Collider with the aim of discovering fundamental particles foremost of which is the Higgs boson. Some doom merchants are convinced that this will destroy the world as we know it and some cynics may say this would be no bad thing - bring it on.
See you tomorrow - maybe.