Let me guess – the phrase “WTF?!” has crossed your mind recently. Very recently. Like, since you read the title of this post.
I thought the same thing when I first read that unlikely combination of words, which arrived in my inbox as an email subject heading. I’ve had some unusual emails since I listed myself as the contact person for our department’s website, including a request to add a link to some tuna recipes to one of our research project pages, but this was definitely the most bizarre missive to date.
The body of the email consisted of a URL, and nothing else. As promised by the title, the link led me into the world of the “ferromagnetic theory of cancer”, aka Iron Conception:
Cancer and ALS/MND are intracellular nano-crystalline ferromagnetic infections. AIDS (infection) cannot endure antiiron slow blood loss.
Apparently,
The Holy Writ and schoolbooks contain this theory. The Holy Writ recommends antiiron healthy diet (raw goat’s milk and meat without blood) and suppression of infections by means of antiiron sulfur (sulphur).
(Oh, and also
The God creates nice women
but I’m not sure what that has to do with iron. But you should check out this photo, from the same site. It’s most illuminating. Oh, and it’s safe for work. It’s not that kind of website).
Why was this link sent to an academic cancer research department?
Well:
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI can open the Holy Writ and read the ferromagnetic theory of cancer; can help numerous cancer researchers to beat cancer and scientific error by means of the Biblical antiiron anticancer antimoney methods.
and/or
Her Majesty The Queen, Patron of Cancer Research UK can send English schoolbooks ‘Physics’ to Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Harold Varmus, M.D., co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer. Great cancer researcher (who cannot understand school ferromagnetic theory-2006 of cancer) was nominated by President Obama as Director of the National Cancer Institute.
and then:
Together we will beat cancer, ALS, AIDS and great money by means of the Biblical accurate non-complicated antiiron methods.
Facepalm AND head-desk! That’s what we’ve been doing wrong all these years! Not involving the Pope and the Queen! D’oh!
There’s lots of other insight in the comments (not), and in the site’s other posts. This page in particular sheds some light on how the ferromagnetic “theory” may have arisen.
This was an unusually quote-heavy post for me. Oh well, one more can’t hurt:
To wear the mantle of Galileo, it is not enough to be persecuted: you must also be right – Robert Park.
The famous Bulgarian prophetess Vanga (Vangelia Dimitrova) prophesied iron death of cancer.
Irons (Handcuffs, Manacles, Shackles, Fetters) & Ferromagnetic Theory of Cancer (Iron Conception) http://www.tutuz.com/?p=1669
The comments on the site are worth a read if you want to be up to date on what the spammers are saying nowadays.
What the Norfolk!?!
I don’t Norwich part is the strangest
Oh damn. I made a comment, and it hasn’t appeared. OT must have finally outed me as David Mabus.
Bum.
I think Ed Yong runs that website in his spare time.
Being the contact email can be troublesome. You want to deal politely with respondents but…
Do you get messages from Dr A. Sayegh? They are challenging.
Tell me about it!
I haven’t had the pleasure of corresponding with Dr. Sayegh. Yet.
There’s an AmEx ad on that website.
The comments seem to be nothing but fake praise from spam bots…
Bah. Does this mean my copper bracelets are no good? How about my tinfoil hat?
I think tin foil hats are still regarded as a panacaea
In this case I think the quotes were necessary.
By the way, WTF is up with that picture? Is this come kind of control. Like, hey we can correctly identify the female gender, so everything else we identify is must also be correct. (Although I can’t really tell from the pic if they are actually men or women or a mixture.)
I had the same thoughts about the picture! (And I’m not convinced it’s all women, either).
Bob, your comments went to spam – no idea why, but I have unspammed them.
I think it’s because I wasn’t logged in, so I was fingered as a new user. Now I’m logged in the software will need a new excuse.
So am I the only one who read your blog title & thought “oh this must be one of her sciencey posts & I’ll come back after my coffee?” Srsly, I thought I needed my brain to be “on” for this post, until I actually read and then face palmed thinking, I must be the only one that thought she was writing a funny sciency post…..
In my defense, I hadn’t yet drank coffee…
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that last quote. AMAZING. I kinda want to tape it to Glenn Beck’s head. Or maybe my head, and make Glenn Beck look at me. Except then I would have to look at Glenn Beck.
Also I am SO GLAD I found you. It was really, really hard. And by hard, I mean I thought, huh, I’m a little behind on Cath’s blog, and she hasn’t popped up in my feed recently. I wonder if she went on a blogging staycation as well? Let me check it out. OMG, she moved house. Er… blog.
I hope that now that you are combining science-y and non-science-y posts there is still plenty of room for spirited discussions about tea.
Holy Writ, Batman. I can’t believe you actually clicked on a link in an unsolicited e-mail, that only contained that link. I suppose it rhymes with a possibly more appropriate exclamation, at least.
Your final quote is awesome. I shall roll it out whenever dealing with woos and wackos online.
ScientistMother, since when do you need your brain on to read this blog? 🙂
Ruchi, I’m very glad you found me, too! I’m sorry the link I left in my last post on the old blog was so hard to follow, though 😉
LOL at the Glenn Beck thing. Oh, and yes, there’s always room for tea! Tea, posts about tea, comments about tea, and arguments about the One True Way in which to drink tea.
Mike, the title, with its whiff of excellent blog fodder, was just too tempting! (Although I probably wouldn’t have clicked it if I was on my own personal computer, heh).
Mao Zedong, The Chinese Intellectuals and The Ferromagnetic Theory of Cancer http://www.tutuz.com/?p=1682