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Dowsing article by physicist John Gribbin

Big Les

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Just came across this reference to the subject of the OP;

http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/2004/07/dowsing-part-1.html

The article in question is the BBC popular science mag (rag?) Focus. Has anyone read it? It seems to involve Vincent Reddish, an astronomer also taken (taken in?) by dowsing, who has his own articles and books out there.

Scientists get taken in by woo like anyone else - Reddish wasn't a huge surprise, but John Gribbin is supposedly a sceptic as well as a physicist.
 
Can you find a link to the actual Focus article?

I couldn't find that, but did see this great page "explaining" dowsing.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ianto/Dowsing intro.htm

I had never heard of Hand Dowsing before! Who needs to spend $8000 on Sniffex, the ADE 651, or any other dowsing rod when you can just use your hands? Think of all the money we will save!
 
Heh, I actually wrote a letter in response to that article that got published in the next issue of Focus. I can't really remember the content, though I recall the tone was grumpy, and I called attention to the fact that Gribbin never once used the phrase 'double blind'.

There was also a brief response to my letter, although I can't remember what it said.

If I come across the magazine (I think I kept both, though I need an archaeologist to go through my cupboards) I'll scan & post.

Focus is irritatingly inconsistent when it comes to quality of their articles.
 
Focus is a terrible magazine - far too keen to push the envelope and prone to forgetting the basics of evidence and reasonable conclusions.

Doesn't Gribbin also have form from years back - something about the alignment of the planets causing catastrope or something? Pity, because some of his popular science stuff is pretty readable.
 
Indeed.
"The Jupiter Effect" 1974. Complete nonsense.
He also wrote the SF novel "The Sixth Winter" around the time everyone expected another ice age to start.

Gribbin is a damn good science writer, but prone to slip over the edge from speculation to outright guesswork.
 
I borrowed a copy of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat off a friend and thought it was excellent. Thanks Stuart.
Hard to believe anybody who has studied Physics to be taken in by dowsing. You pour your numbers into equations and get the same answer time after time.
On the subject of Focus, I am sure the BBC must have taken over the magazine. It was a good magazine, not very in depth, lots of glossy pictures and prone to speculation but entertaining. Always second best to New Scientist though (where Gribbin is physics consultant). Anyhow, now that the BBC is involved what can we expect?
Gribbin is an astrophysicist. He can let the Hubble space telescope rot and dowse for stars now.:rolleyes:
 
The Beeb were involved from the start IIRC - or at least they were by the mid-90s when I remember seeing it advertised.

Thanks for hooking me up. You know who you are! I'd be very interested in your response too, Nucular.

Dowsing is fascinating for its power to convince even the most switched-on people (and lots of hippy archaeologists!).
 
I loved Schrödinger's Cat - I read it at 18 just as I was putting school science behind me, and it was responsible for my interest continuing to this day.

But sadly, like many others (Puthoff & Targ, for example), Gribbin seems prone to assuming that because he's good at physics, he's good at everything else too.

I could be wrong, but I think the article appeared in Focus *before* the BBC took it over.

Edit: ah, it seems I'm wrong re: the BBC then, Big Les. I'll try and dig out the article & response, anyway.
 
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