About Science Fictions

Welcome to Science Fictions! This is the Substack newsletter that follows on from my 2020 book of the same name, which was about fraud, bias, negligence and hype in science. If it’s about where research goes wrong, I’m interested: not because I want to attack science, but because healthy scepticism is what science is all about. I’m also interested in ways that we can fix these problems - whether that involves changes in scientific publishing, statistics, culture, or policy.

In 2022, I was writing directly on Substack, and you can still find all those posts on this site.

As of 2023, I’m now a full-time science writer for the i newspaper in the UK - and that means all my science writing is published there. So at present this Substack is a monthly update of all the stuff I’ve written recently - along with some extra comments and a list of interesting science-related links from the previous month.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for me to cover, or tip me off about some dodgy scientific claims (in scientific papers, the mainstream press, or anywhere else), then please do get in touch on stuart.ritchie@inews.co.uk.

Why subscribe?

You might also want to subscribe if you’re any of the following kinds of people:

• Someone who wants a rational, sensible, non-political take on the latest scientific controversies;

• Someone who reads a lot of science news but wants to see a more critical angle;

• Someone who isn’t a scientist but wants to see behind the scenes of how science is actually done;

• A student who wants to sharpen their statistical or critical analysis skills;

• Someone who is interested in ideas to reform and improve our scientific system.

Since it’s a good bet that you’re in at least one of those categories, you should consider clicking the button below to subscribe. Thanks so much for reading.