fagin
24th September 2007, 01:32 PM
Have just watched an old episode of Braniac, which, for non UK readers is a very silly science programme containing of funny, almost scientific, experiments, which generally end up in an explosion. Good fun though and the theory, in my layman's opinion, is normally fairly sound.
A nice little knock at acupuncture in this episode.
The idea was to see if a 'Brainiac' - cast member, often slightly abused or mistreated, could use acupuncture to give up smoking.
They pointed out that acupuncture, is unregulated, and anyone can set up and practice, and that, 'invisible lines of force' aside, the scientific community generally ascribe any beneficial results to the placebo effect.
Premise set up, they proceeded to give an employee of a local Chinese restaurant some basic 'theory', a bit of a bedside manner, and set him loose of the unsuspecting Brainiac, with a school geometry set.
Just how much is set up I don't know- I suspect quite a lot, but the 'doctor' proceeded to 'treat' the Brainiac with the set of compasses, initially on the ear, then down the back. (Without him actually seeing what was used, in theory anyway.) Looked a bit painful at times. An attempt was also made with the point of an isosceles triangle.
Not sure what the result was as I was reading a post, but I think it was unsuccessful.
But quite successful at showing that the entire idea is nonsense to the early/mid teenage target audience. (I think. I enjoy it and so does my 11 year old - I'm mid 40's but pretty immature).
And hopefully it will make them think twice when faced with woowoo
A nice little knock at acupuncture in this episode.
The idea was to see if a 'Brainiac' - cast member, often slightly abused or mistreated, could use acupuncture to give up smoking.
They pointed out that acupuncture, is unregulated, and anyone can set up and practice, and that, 'invisible lines of force' aside, the scientific community generally ascribe any beneficial results to the placebo effect.
Premise set up, they proceeded to give an employee of a local Chinese restaurant some basic 'theory', a bit of a bedside manner, and set him loose of the unsuspecting Brainiac, with a school geometry set.
Just how much is set up I don't know- I suspect quite a lot, but the 'doctor' proceeded to 'treat' the Brainiac with the set of compasses, initially on the ear, then down the back. (Without him actually seeing what was used, in theory anyway.) Looked a bit painful at times. An attempt was also made with the point of an isosceles triangle.
Not sure what the result was as I was reading a post, but I think it was unsuccessful.
But quite successful at showing that the entire idea is nonsense to the early/mid teenage target audience. (I think. I enjoy it and so does my 11 year old - I'm mid 40's but pretty immature).
And hopefully it will make them think twice when faced with woowoo