I have not read all the snake-oil and magnet-therapy messages.
Therefore I apologize if someone has already addressed my question.
Although William Beaty is certainly correct that good scientists should
view the evidence before making judgements about whether something is
science or pseudo-science, I am not clear how to gather good data with
respect to magnets.
It is vitally important in this type of study to do double-blind
testing. But how do you do that with magnets? Anybody with even
marginal knowledge of magnets can determine if they have the real thing
or a placebo. I suppose we might assume the data collector would be
"blind" if we don't give him/her a chance to test the "magnets." But I
don't see how we can stop the test subjects from trying to pick up
paper clips with their "magnets" to see if they are in the treated
group or the placebo group. If we can't stop the test subjects from
doing that, how can we conduct valid double-blind studies?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817