John Brignell

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John Brignell, Ph.D., is a retired Professor of Industrial Instrumentation at University of Southampton.[1]

Contents

[edit] Popular science works

Brignell retired in the late 1990s from his academic career and now devotes part of his time to his interest in debunking what he asserts to be the use of poor science and false statistics common in much of today's media. In this context, he has expressed controversial opinions on many subjects. In particular, he has disputed the reality of anthropogenic global warming,[2] questioned the relationship between second-hand smoke and lung cancer, [3] and suggested that the hole in the ozone layer existed before the rise in the use of chlorofluorocarbons.[4]

He has published two popular science books, Sorry Wrong Number and The Epidemiologists: Have They Got Scares for You!, which have been reviewed in the British press (for example,[5][6]).

In mid 2005, Brignell prepared a list of over 600 links to news reports linking various contradictory phenomena to global warming.[7] In November 2007, this list appeared on the spiked website[8], then the Rush Limbaugh show [9], and has since been quoted in other places, eg. [10]

[edit] Criticism

Bob Carroll (author of the Skeptic's Dictionary) initially accepted Brignell's argument against the EPA. However, he changed his mind on the basis that the "scientific principle" (relative risk less than 2) that Brignell used to reject the finding was not recognized by epidemiologists or statisticians.[11]

[edit] Books

  • John Brignell and Godfrey M Rhodes, Laboratory on-line computing: an introduction for engineers and physicists, Intertext, 1975. ISBN 0-7002025-8-7.
  • John Brignell and Neil White, Intelligent sensor systems, Institute of Physics (Great Britain), 1994. ISBN 0-7503029-7-6.
  • John Brignell, Sorry, wrong number!, Brignell Associates, September 2000. ISBN 0-9539108-0-6
  • John Brignell, The epidemiologists: Have they got scares for you!, Brignell Associates, July 2004. ISBN 0-9539108-2-2.

[edit] References

  1. ^ cv
  2. ^ November 2001
  3. ^ November 2005
  4. ^ November 2001
  5. ^ Le Fanu J. In sickness and in health Telegraph (December 2000)
  6. ^ Le Fanu J. In sickness and in health: why must medical research resort to quackery? Telegraph (13 September 2004)
  7. ^ A complete list of things caused by global warming
  8. ^ Got a problem? Blame global warming! | spiked
  9. ^ Global Warming Causes Everything
  10. ^ U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007 Senate Report Debunks "Consensus"
  11. ^ Skeptic's Dictionary Newsletter 41

[edit] External links