I never realized, until I started reading the Bad Science blog, just how much “spin” there is in science papers. Spin is great when shooting pool, but it’s simply dishonest when someone uses it in a scientific paper. And when that paper is about the efficacy of a medicine or the safety of a product, you have to suspect that the author is succumbing to pressure from the business that makes it.

Fortunately, the voices raised against that kind of chicanery are getting easier for people to hear, thanks to the Internet.