Ben Goldacre casts a refreshingly sceptical eye on pseudoscience peddled in UK schools and gets a barrage of point-missing complaints for his trouble:

[Brain Gym] teach that a special theatrical yawn will lead to “increased oxidation for efficient relaxed functioning”. Oxidation is what causes rusting. It is not the same as oxygenation, which I suppose is what they’re getting at, and even if they are talking about oxygenation, you don’t need to do a funny yawn to get oxygen into your blood: like most other animals children have a perfectly adequate and utterly fascinating physiological system in place to regulate their blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, and I’m sure many children would rather be taught about that.

26 March 2006 · UK Culture

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