Thread by @drg1985

Ah no - James Randi has died, aged 92. Sad, but a hell of a life - from touring with @alicecooper to besting Houdini, & exposing fraud. This elven man cast a long shadow - my favourite Randi story is how he got a Nature paper (!) (1/n) nytimes.com/2020/10/21/obi…

In 1988, immunologist Jacques Benveniste made an huge claim: homeopathy, long thought physically impossible, was real. If so, everything we knew about physical science would have to be rewritten. The seemingly strong result was a dilemma for editor of @nature, John Maddox (2/n)

Maddox decided to publish the paper, with an unusual caveat - that it would be independently validated by a group of special investigators. A team skilled at detecting fraud and self-delusion. And crucial to this mix? James Randi, as I write in "The Irrational Ape"... (3/n)

Notes of editorial reservation are rare in journals like @nature, but Randi had previous form here: he'd already been involved in exposing Uri Geller, demonstrating that a paper extolling his psychic skill just required credulous scientists, so his inclusion made sense (4/n)

Now, Benveniste's result seemed like vindication to the alternative medicine community, & coupled with the involvement of the charismatic Randi, press interest was intense. Immediately they noted the experiment was unblinded, which Randi remedied... (5/n)

Side note which I love: Benveniste, something of a publicity hound, loved attention but loathed Randi, objecting to his presence. While awaiting new result, Randi performed magic tricks to entertain everyone. This did not endear him further to Benveniste, but amused others (6/n)

So confident of validation was Benveniste that he had a press conference with magnums of cooled champagne ready to go. But sadly for him, Randi and the team merely showed the French researchers had utterly deluded themselves - homeopathy was and remains a fiction (7/n)

This was an exemplar of "pathological science", which can happen when scientists delude themselves into subscribing to cherished beliefs, disregarding evidence. This is why in science we have to try and prove ourselves wrong, not right - Randi knew how easily we're fooled (8/n)

Predictably, perhaps, Benveniste didn't accept this, cursing Randi & claiming he was the victim of a Galileo-like persecution, somehow missing the memo that Galileo was actually vindicated by experiment. Here's Randi's @nature paper on subject! (9/n) nature.com/articles/33428…

So there you have it - in Randi's incredible life, he also has a nature paper on top of everything else, an achievement most scientists never get! He will be missed, here's a nice video if you've never had the pleasure of his wry humour (10/n)

And if you're interested in why we get things wrong, and the text asides in this thread, you can check out my book here if you like (11/n) n = 11 amazon.co.uk/Irrational-Ape…