Ben Goldacre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ben Goldacre
|
|
|---|---|
Goldacre in 2009
|
|
| Born |
Ben Michael Goldacre
20 May 1974 London, United Kingdom
|
| Education | Magdalen College School, Oxford |
| Alma mater |
|
| Occupation | Author, journalist, physician, science writer and scientist |
| Employer |
|
| Known for |
|
| Parent(s) | Michael Goldacre Susan Goldacre |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Epidemiology Clinical Informatics Evidence Based Medicine Reproducibility |
Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British doctor, teacher, and writer about science. He holds a special position at the University of Oxford. There, he leads the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science. This institute helps use information to make better decisions in medicine.
Ben Goldacre also started the AllTrials campaign. This group wants all clinical trials (studies on new medicines) to share their results openly. He is famous for his "Bad Science" column in The Guardian newspaper. He wrote this column from 2003 to 2011. He has also written several books, including Bad Science and Bad Pharma. These books look at how science is sometimes misused or misunderstood.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ben Goldacre was born in London, United Kingdom. His father, Michael Goldacre, was a professor at the University of Oxford. His mother, Susan Traynor, was a singer known as Noosha Fox. She was the lead singer of a 1970s pop band called Fox. Both his parents were from Australia.
Ben Goldacre went to Magdalen College School, Oxford. He then studied medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1995, he earned a degree in Physiological Sciences. He also worked as a visiting researcher in Italy. There, he studied how the brain works at the University of Milan.
After his studies at Oxford and Milan, he continued his medical training. He became a medical doctor in 2000. He also earned another degree in philosophy from King's College London.
Career and Research
Ben Goldacre's Scientific Work
In 2005, Ben Goldacre became a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. This means he passed important exams in mental health. He later became a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. In 2009, he also became a researcher at Nuffield College, Oxford.
In 2012, he joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He worked there as a researcher studying Epidemiology. This field looks at how diseases spread and how to control them.
In 2015, Ben Goldacre moved to the University of Oxford. He joined a project at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. This center helps doctors use the best available evidence to treat patients. In 2022, he became the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine. He also became the director of Oxford's new Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science.
Ben Goldacre has published many articles in important medical journals. These include the British Medical Journal and The Lancet. In 2020, he helped lead a project called OpenSAFELY. This project used health records of millions of NHS patients. It helped find out what puts people at risk for serious illness from COVID-19.
His "Bad Science" Column and Books
Ben Goldacre was well-known for his weekly column called "Bad Science." It appeared in The Guardian newspaper from 2003 to 2011. In this column, he wrote about pseudoscience. This is when something looks like science but isn't. He also wrote about how science can be misused.
He talked about many topics in his column. These included how companies market products and how the media reports on science. He also wrote about quackery, which is fake medical treatment. He looked at problems with the pharmaceutical industry and how it works with doctors.
Goldacre often criticized people who spread false information about science. For example, he spoke out against those who were against childhood immunizations. He also criticized products like Brain Gym and Penta Water. He was a strong critic of a nutritionist named Gillian McKeith. He even showed how easy it was to get a fake professional membership for his dead cat!
In 2008, Ben Goldacre and The Guardian were sued by a vitamin seller. Goldacre had criticized this person for selling vitamin pills to people with AIDS in South Africa. The lawsuit was dropped, and the vitamin seller had to pay money to The Guardian.
Books by Ben Goldacre
Bad Science (2008)
Ben Goldacre's first book, Bad Science, came out in 2008. It included updated versions of many of his newspaper columns. The book was well-received by critics. It became a bestseller on Amazon Books. In the book, he explained that there isn't much difference between the big drug companies and smaller companies selling health supplements. Both need to be honest about their claims.
Bad Pharma (2012)
His second book, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients, was published in 2012. This book looked closely at the pharmaceutical industry. It showed how drug companies sometimes hide important information. It also explained how they market their products and how this affects doctors and patients.
Other Writing and Appearances
Ben Goldacre has written for other books and publications. He wrote a part of The Atheist's Guide to Christmas in 2009. He also wrote the introduction for a book called Testing Treatments. This book is about doing better research for better healthcare. He has written several articles for the British Medical Journal. These articles cover topics like the MMR vaccine and science journalism.
In 2014, he worked on a study about the side effects of statins. These are medicines used to lower cholesterol. He found that many newspapers reported the study incorrectly. He pointed out that the study's data might not have been complete.
A collection of his articles was published in 2014. It was called I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That. In 2018, he was chosen to lead the NHS HealthTech Advisory Board. This board helps the National Health Service use new technology.
Ben Goldacre has also appeared on YouTube videos. He has shared his love for railways in a video about a less-used train station in Oxfordshire.
Awards and Honours
Ben Goldacre has received many awards for his work. Some of these include:
- Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) award for Best Feature in 2003 and 2005.
- The Balles Prize in Critical Thinking in 2006 for his "Bad Science" column.
- The first Statistical Excellence In Journalism Award from the Royal Statistical Society.
- The Philosophy Now Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity in 2012.
- The HealthWatch Award from HealthWatch.
- He has also received honorary degrees from Heriot-Watt University and Loughborough University.
- In 2018, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This was for his work in using evidence to help make good decisions.
