Today we explore the world of Junk Science. Though to get there we might have to do a little “Data Dredging” and “Preception Manipulation”.

Trent University professor Stephen Bocking reviewed four junk science expose books in his recent Alternatives Journal article “Skewing Science: Four new books expose how government and industry manipulate science to fit their needs.” Bocking defines “Data dredging” as “Conducting a study, then shuffling the numbers until desired results appear”.

Sound outrageous? It shouldn’t. In his two-part interview with Bocking Peter Stock discovers that these are all too common tactics employed by climate crisis deniers, profit driven corporations, and their on-the-take junk scientists.

Booklist

Diagnosis: Mercury: Money, Politics and Poison, Jane M. Hightower, Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008, 326 pages.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer, Devra Davis, New York: Basic Books, 2007, 560 pages.

Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research, Thomas O. McGarity and Wendy E. Wagner, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008, 400 pages.

Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, David Michaels, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, 384 pages.