ABSTRACT
Many doctors like to think of themselves as scientists –it's good for the ego and good for business. Medicine is largely the application of accepted, tried and true methods developed by scientists for physicians, tempered, one hopes, by a genuine concern for people and a reasonably insightful understanding of their behavior. The misguided medical pseudoscience, mumbo jumbo, and superstition of past ages amuse us all. Silly science, as we have decided to term it –we might also think of it as "Scientific Method Lite", or "McResearch" –has become an increasingly embarrassing trend within biomedicine in recent years. Indeed, there is pathos in the often correct perception of liability, because the fear of malpractice lawsuits often fuels the practice of defensive medicine, which costs the nation billions of dollars a year, and contributes to both profit for the medical industrial complex, and impoverishment of communities.
