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I'm probably being really dumb here, but I don't quite understand why the control samples need to be shaken. Surely if, due to the placebo effect, both groups report some positive effect, then that may be attributed to the shaking. However, if you use plain unprepared tap water, any positive result in the control group could be confidently dismissed as placebo. Then only if there's a greater positive result in the experimental group than in the control group would you consider that there may be something in the homeopathic method that works, although you wouldn't know what, but that wouldn't matter because we're trying to show that it doesn't work at all.
Permalink Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:00 UTC | #443724