Entropy Production: All Medical Science is Wrong within a 95% Confidence Interval
or: A Review of Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories”: Recently I read a very impressive book by Gary Taubes, previously a reporter for the journal Science. The work in question is, “Good Calories, Bad Calories.”‘ In the book, Taubes collects research to challenge the common knowledge of nutrition: that fat is bad for you, that we should eat polyunsaturated vegetable oils, that we should exercise for sixty minutes a day, etc.

…

One cannot help but wonder how a number of the weak hypotheses that Taubes explores came to become common knowledge in the field of nutrition? Taubes paints a picture of a few egotistical researchers who were able to effect what was essentially scientific fraud, by fitting their bias to the data rather than examining it critically. In Taubes words (p. 451), “it is difficult to use the term “scientist” to describe those individuals who work in these disciples [ed: nutrition, chronic disease, and obesity], and, indeed, I have activity avoided doing so in this book.”

This article is a fantastic summary and commentary on Gary Taubes enlightening book. I highly recommend purchasing and reading the book. It changed my life for the better (starting with article that Taubes wrote for the New York Times Magazine). Since reading the article / book and following (for the most part) it’s tennets, the following has happened to me personally:

• I’ve lost 50 pounds
• My blood cholesterol has dropped from 220 to 160
• My trigycerides have dropped
• My blood pressure has dropped

If you are overweight or borderline diabetic, you NEED to read this book.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Can Fractals Make Sense of the Quantum World?: Keith found a New Scientist story about fractals and quantum theory. The article says “Take the mathematics of fractals into account, says Palmer, and the long-standing puzzles of quantum theory may be much easier to understand. They might even dissolve away.”

This is the coolest article I’ve read in a long time. I’ve had a hobby for many years of trying to understand (at a very coarse, layman’s level) the nature of various theories in physics today.

I’ve read books by Feynman, and Hawking, and always wondered if there’d ever be a connection between quantum theory and relativity theory. I’ve also read several books on fractals and thought that the nature of our universe had to be fractal in some way. Well, it looks as though it is, and there might be a connection between quantum theory and relativity theory after all.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.