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David Gorski

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski. That Orac has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 30 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: oracknows@gmail.com

Posts by this author

March 20, 2008
There's no doubt about it: Stem cells are hot. Yes indeed, they're not only hot, but they're hip, they're happenin', they're right now, baby. Scientists are falling all over themselves with excitement at the potential applications that could potentially come from stem cell technology. True, no…
March 19, 2008
Imagine that you're a soldier in Iraq. Imagine further that you're on patrol in a dangerous area in the middle of summer, the desert heat penetrating your 80 lb pack much the way boiling water penetrates the shell of a lobster. Your heart is racing as you and your unit nervously dart to and fro,…
March 18, 2008
You be the judge. Words fail me (an incredibly rare thing, I know). Obviously, "Dr." Walid Al-Rashudi's brain failed him when he uttered the words above, and somehow I get the impression that that is not a rare thing at all.
March 18, 2008
Imagine you're a medical student in a dreaded "allopathic" medical school other than Georgetown. Imagine further that you're finding the grind of learning science- and evidence-based medicine a bit tiresome. After all, there's so much to learn: principles of biochemistry, physiology, anatomy (and…
March 17, 2008
Thursday through Sunday, I happened to be in Chicago for the Society of Surgical Oncology annual meeting. Leave it to surgeons to schedule a meeting the weekend before St. Patrick's Day in Chicago. In Chicago. That means the drinking in the city started Friday after business hours and continued all…
March 17, 2008
One of the greatest threats to the preclinical research necessary for science-based medicine today is animal rights activism. The magnitude of the problem came to the forefront again last month with the news that animal rights terrorists tried to enter the home of a researcher at the University of…
March 16, 2008
I'm about to head home from the conference; so I don't have much time to do one of my usual posts. However, there is a brief bit that irritated me regarding the Hannah Poling case, and it comes from Dr. Sanjay Gupta: I want to continue the discussion today. Couple of points. First of all, it seems…
March 15, 2008
I got in somewhat late last night and was tired from the meeting, but there's been something that's been bugging me more and more, and Kimball Atwood's recent posts about the distortions of language used by "complementary and alternative medicine" advocates brought it to the forefront. I first…
March 14, 2008
The must-read post of the day comes from Mark Crislip of the (in)famous Quackcast and was posted over at the Science-Based Medicine blog. It's about two things primarily: How evidence and science result in physicians practicing science- and evidence-based medicine to change their practice and why…
March 14, 2008
Readers who have followed my little Friday bit of fun every week have probably, like me, at times sat in front of their computer screens, jaw drooping, a little bit of spittle starting to drip out of the corners of their mouths, and eyes agape with wonder at just how anyone on earth could believe…
March 13, 2008
I happen to be in Chicago right now attending the annual meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology. It's a meeting that I try to make it to almost every year, and usually it's a necessary update to my knowledge base. Consequently, I only just this morning noticed my fellow ScienceBloggers Mark…
March 13, 2008
As an NIH-funded surgeon/scientist, I just had to read this report at BrokenPipeline.org when I became aware of it, courtesy of Bora and Drugmonkey. Basically, it describes how bleak the NIH funding situation has become, particularly for young investigators. The report (PDF) comes from several…
March 12, 2008
Having just perused the 82nd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle over at Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes, I was left with one question? Was the Founder of the Circle, the not late but still lamented St. Nate (mainly because he left the blogosphere and took his blog down) God? Is Orac his son? And what…
March 12, 2008
After a bit of ranting earlier this week, I thought now would be a good time to cool it down a bit, if only for a moment. There's plenty more out there to rant about, but I'm intentionally ignoring it, if only for a day (or even half a day). If there's one thing I've learned about blogging in the…
March 11, 2008
Buried in yesterday's post was a link to a post on the Science Business blog, which is one of the blogs of Forbes magazine that was a dangerous gratification to my ego in that it mentioned this humble blog as one of the Autism Debate Go-To Blogs. Although Matthew Harper, Associate Editor at Forbes…
March 11, 2008
You may remember from yesterday that I wrote about a concerted propaganda effort by antivaccinationists to torture the facts and science behind a case of a girl with a rare mitochondrial disease whose condition may have been exacerbated by vaccination, resulting in an encephalopathy with some…
March 10, 2008
I have no idea if this will post or not. Even so, I'll try. It turns out that ScienceBlogs is experiencing technical difficulties and has been since very early this morning. No one can comment (not even me), and some bloggers can't post (although apparently PZ can). I have no idea when commenting…
March 10, 2008
Damn you, mercury militia. I had had another topic entirely in mind for this week's post, but, as happens far too often, news events have overtaken me in the form of a story that was widely reported towards the end of last week. It was all over the media on Thursday evening and Friday, showing up…
March 9, 2008
...Wiley explains: That about sums it up, as do the rest of the questions in the comic's poll.
March 8, 2008
Yesterday was annoying. It started out hearing about the vaccine injury case conceded by the government in a story on NPR on during my drive into work. As I walked through the clinic waiting area on the way to my lab, the TVs in the waiting rooms were all on CNN, where--you guessed it!--there was…
March 7, 2008
I really have no idea how valid this is (I suspect not very), but every blogger likes a bit of ego stroking from time to time, and I'm no different. So, take this with an enormous grain of salt, but somehow on a new system of blog ranking on Wikio, Respectful Insolence is ranked #8 among science…
March 7, 2008
It's that time again. Well, not quite yet. But it soon will be. That's right; everyone's favorite blog carnival the Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching and is scheduled to land at Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes next Thursday, March 13. (I have to say, I like the blog name!) But Bing McGhandi…
March 7, 2008
Sometimes my readers save my butt. There I was earlier this week, looking through my Folder of Woo, as is my wont, and oddly enough nothing much was floating my boat. I know, I know, I've started this little weekly exercise before lamenting a lack of enthusiasm for the woo of which I am aware. Then…
March 6, 2008
There's an idiotic poll up at Larry King Live with the question: "Do you believe vaccines cause or contribute to autism?" Idiotic, because it's science that says whether or not vaccines cause or contribute to autism. Whether the public thinks they do or not is irrelevant to the biological, medical…
March 6, 2008
I should have seen this one coming a mile away in light of the concession of vaccine injury in the case of one child that led to the incredibly shrinking causation claim when it comes to vaccines and autism. Having had it conclusively demonstrated through several large studies in multiple countries…
March 6, 2008
Yesterday was a rather long day, starting with a long commute in the morning, followed by a long day in the office mainly doing grant paperwork, and capped off by getting home late. Even so, I couldn't ignore this particular story for two reasons. First, it's about so-called "alternative" medicine…
March 5, 2008
Perusing the news early this morning, I noticed an article on ABC News about placebos. One thing I found interesting about it was that it was a story about a research letter to JAMA, not a full study. Heck, there isn't even an abstract. Even so, the study was rather interesting and described thusly…
March 5, 2008
File this one under: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." It's a story that I couldn't resist because it combines my interest in skepticism with my interest in World War II history. Too bad there wasn't a way to throw some medicine in there as well; otherwise I could have had a trifecta.…
March 4, 2008
I saw this and was going to write about it, but it turns out that Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata beat me to it. Basically, the makers of Airborne have been slapped down bigtime for false advertising: WASHINGTON--The makers of Airborne--a multivitamin and herbal supplement whose labels and ads…
March 4, 2008
If there's one type of so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" that I've always been very up front about, it's that I consider homeopathy to be the ultimate in pseudoscientific twaddle when it comes to CAM. The reasons should be obvious to anyone with a background in basic science. After…