Originally posted by Scientist:
Read how an MRI works. Sinai-Grace Hospital
As you'll find, atoms are magnetic. Everything is made of atoms. The nucleus of a hydrogen atom is magnetic. Water is mostly hydrogen. We are made up of mostly water. See the connection?
If you'd like to read about some magnet therapy studies go to www.therionresearch.com. They have dozens of them on their site. Healing With Magnets, by Gary Null, has plenty of studies in it too. There are other books on magnet therapy with even more studies in them.
The point of my posts was to let people know that there is scientific evidence supporting magnet therapy. If you're curious, look up more information yourself. If you're convinced you already know the answers without having spent any time researching it on your own, then don't. Just be sure to explain that kind of "critical thinking" to your students. "Scientist"
You are seriously mislead in a number of ways.
First, and most important, you need to realize that critical thinking does NOT mean that one is obligated to take all ideas seriously. You happen to be talking about a field (magnetic therapy) that has been largely discredited by reasonable scientists. It would be very cool if you were to present a good reason for people to take the field seriously. However, you have not done that. Your descriptions of studies are totally inadequate, and the sources you cite are invalid, in one case because you have misunderstood the information (Sinai-Grace), and in the other cases because the authors (Gary Null and Therion Research) have very clear commercial interests. Such sources have no place in a scientific discussion, for the very good reason that the authors have clear conflicts of interest. A critical thinking person has very good reason to shoot you down.
By the way, I encourage anybody reading this to look up Gary Null (Quack City) and Therion Research (Scam City). Therion is especially bad.
Secondly, the Sinai-Grace site you reference presents a very very simplistic explanation of how MRI works. They give one paragraph intended to give an introduction to people who have never been introduced to the concepts upon which MRI is based. It's fine for its purposes, but it is completely inadequate as a defense of magnet therapy. Please notice that I am not questioning the expertise of the Sinai-Grace faculty. I am absolutely questioning your ability to cite an appropriate source.
Here's a vastly more thorough resource:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mri.htm You will see that there is no simplistic claim that atoms are magnetic.
Finally, it is very clear to anybody who knows even a little bit about atomic structure that you have no understanding of what magnetism is or where it comes from. It makes no sense, for example, to say that an atom or its nucleus is "magnetic". Do you mean diamagnetic or paramagnetic? Do you understand that molecules have very different properties from the individual atoms of which they are comprised? For that matter, do you understand that whole organisms have very different properties from the molecules of which they are comprised? Your extrapolation, while it may appear logical to somebody who doesn't know any better, is utterly invalid. Critical thinkers understand that wild extrapolations are foolish at best.
Here are some decent resources regarding the magnetic properties of water.
http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/magnetic.html http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/homeop.html Here are a couple that do a fair job of explaining why intelligent people have no obligation to take you seriously:
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ http://www.chem1.com/CQ/magwatscams.html Here is why everybody is laughing at you:
You have begun a discussion about something you appear to know almost nothing about with a group of people who happen to be educated about the subject. You have taken the misguided step of labelling yourself a scientist when it is clear to any actual scientist that you have no clue about how scientific research works or how scientists report their findings, and what's worse, you have openly demonstrated a complete ignorance of even the most basic information which you should have learned in high school Chemistry. Frankly, we are right to laugh you out of the proverbial building.
One has to suppose that you intend to make money by selling magnet therapy goods or services to people who would be better off holding onto their money instead of throwing it away in your direction. If this is indeed your plan, then I urge you to reconsider; if you must pursue a profit incentive, then find a field that has a good chance of doing people some good. If you do enter the magnet therapy field with profitable intentions, then you deserve the contempt of thinking people, if not a special place in Hell.
I do not pretend to know all the answers, but I know how to evaluate claims. That's what Critical Thinking means. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have provided none.
