Beware Mesmer Thieves!

Letter from the Editor

In a recent essay (SI, March/April 2015), I went back

New and Notable

THE ASTRONOMER AND THE WITCH: Johannes Kepler’s Fight forhis Mother

Inbox

Whether it is Stephen Hawking’s guest­starring role on the CBS

Skeptical Anniversaries

November 1, 1755: The Great Lisbon Earthquake kills over 100,000

Carbon Dating

CFI Calls on FDA to Label Homeopathic Drugs as Untested and Unproven

Consumers spend $3 billion a year on homeopathic drugs, yet

Ten Distinguished Scientists and Scholars Named Fellows of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Ten distinguished scientists, scholars, educators, and investigators from five countries

Six Presentations at TAM 13 Celebrate Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner was such a hero to the skeptical community

James Randi Also Feted at ‘Amazing’ Meeting

Martin Gardner wasn’t the only famed skeptic honored at TAM

Mysterious Clumps of Worms Line Texas Highways

The deluge that flooded parts of Texas in late May

Study Casts Doubt on Omega-3, Antioxidant Brain Benefits

Omega-3 fatty acids—found naturally in a variety of foods including

Stephen Hawking Lends Fame to New SETI Search

Famous physicist Stephen Hawking has joined Russian billionare Yuri Milner

Farmer in Chile Finds ‘Chupacabra’; Science Suggests Otherwise

A goat farmer in Chile who found two mysterious dead

From N-Rays to EmDrives

Afair amount of pseudoscience begins as blue-sky, basic scientific hypotheses

Is the EmDrive Pseudoscience?

The question of demarcation is an interesting and important one

Poltergeist Scribbler: The Bizarre Case of Matthew Manning

Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow. As a

The Charlie Charlie Challenge

Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and

The Rendle-Sham Case: Phony and Phonier

Sheaffer’s “Psychic Vibrations” column has appeared in the Skeptical Inquirer

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Delusion: Looking Back after Forty Years

Forty years have passed since my book The Bermuda Triangle

Through Me, the Universe: A Stroll through the Curious Solipsism of Biocentrism

If you have religious friends of a scientific bent and

The Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming

On May 16, 2013, President Obama tweeted that “Ninety-seven percent

We Are All GMOs

Humans have been modifying the genomes of plants and animals

The Devil and the Details

In recent decades many branches of Judeo-Christian theism have adapted

The Search for Negative Evidence

Everyone loves a mystery. Solve one in science, and accolades

A Protopian View of Moral Progress

Religion has often positioned itself as the originator (and for

Unlocking the Treasures

Back when I taught high school physics, I’d lug those

On Her Majesty’s Secret Saucers

One of the most profound observations ever made about UFOs

Memoir of an Accused Satanist

When it comes to true-crime autobiographies, readers can usually expect