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Searching for the Fountain of Youth

Lecture given by Dr. Joe Schwarcz

The Placebo Myth Picked the Wrong War

5 Feb 2026

There’s a medical myth with which a friend of mine and I have become obsessed: this idea that scientific research into the “placebo effect” began in earnest during World War II. As I’ve written...

The Legend of the Wartime Placebo

11 Feb 2022

Facts rarely get in the way of a good story. There is a foundational myth in placebo research that has been repeated over and over again, sometimes with inexplicable flourishes, often with the...

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