An upcoming lecture from our friends at CFI

Fighting Alternative Medicine: Edzard Ernst’s Story

Perhaps best known as the co-author with Simon Singh on their 2008 book, Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial, Edzard Ernst will tell his story as a doctor and a scientist based on his new book, A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth and Finding Trouble.

Despite a youthful ambition to become a jazz musician, Ernst eventually studied medicine and became a medical research scientist, with appointments in Germany, Austria and finally in England. His reverence for the pursuit of truth through the application of scientific methods, coupled with a growing interest in the history of medicine during the Nazi era, did not always endear him to his professional colleagues. When he was appointed to the world's first chair in alternative medicine, this area of health care had never been studied systematically and was almost entirely dominated by outspokenly evangelic promoters and enthusiasts. Clashes were inevitable, but the sheer ferocity with which advocates of alternative medicine would go to protect their field from scrutiny came as a profound surprise to Ernst. His memoir provides a unique insight into the cutthroat politics of academic life and offers a sobering reflection on the damage already done by pseudoscience in the field of medicine.

Ernst is the Emeritus Professor of Exeter University in England. He has published 48 books and more than 1,000 peer-review medical articles and has received 14 science awards.