Comments on: HOWTO: Be a homeopathic bioterrorist

By: Paul Kuliniewicz

Paul Kuliniewicz — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:15:13 +0000

So I guess homeopathic birth control would be Stephen Colbert's Formula 4.01 x 10^-60?

By: Benji

Benji — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:35:42 +0000

That was a fun fact. And an exceptionally useful one for when I want to type hacker like a leet idiot. Well, that plan backfired but on the plus side I sounded like Trevor, the vampire.

I think homeopathic birth control would be the one time where I would advocate an abstinence only program.

By: Paul Kuliniewicz

Paul Kuliniewicz — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:37:34 +0000

No, no, you see, when you dilute something, it becomes less effective at what it's supposed to do. Sure, a "real" scientist would identify that's just the well-known dose-response relationship, that more of a chemical will have more of an effect than less of a chemical. But in homeopathy, it's only the effect you normally associate with the compound that diminishes with dilution. The exact opposite effect gets stronger. Thus, homeopathic sleeping pills are based on heavily diluted caffeine. A homeopathic remedy to cure itching would be heavily diluted poison ivy. And so on. One can only imagine how homeopathic birth control is prepared. Also, fun fact: if you want to make a <, you need to type <. (And if you want to type <, you need to type <. And so on.) You sound a bit like Trevor there at the end.

By: Benji

Benji — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:53:45 +0000

I sadly know someone who believes in homeopathy. Adding insult to injury she is going through med school. No matter how much I talked with her about it, FDA tested and approved medications are stupid and water with less than an atom of ginkgo biloba is better.

Also, assuming homeopathy does work, wouldn’t dilute orange juice still prevent scurvy? I think you should stick with your ha>