Book excerpt: Hailed in the New York Times as "entertaining and immensely educational," Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies appear to be effective. Bausell explains why research on any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect (and other placebo-like effects) will inevitably produce false results.