‘Bomb Detecting’ Dowsing Rod Demonstrates Danger of Pseudoscience

The story is here: New York Times.com

The problem? They don’t work. The device has only one moving part, an antenna-like piece of metal that swivels freely, supposedly detecting explosive material. Examinations have shown no technology inside that could detect explosives. It’s a $60,000 dowsing rod.

(Dowsing rods, for those who don’t know, have been used for centuries by people who think they can detect water, gold, oil, or another substance. Unfortunately, dowsing has been scientifically tested and always failed.)

According to the Times, “Iraqi officials reacted with fury to the news, noting a series of horrific bombings in the past six months despite the widespread use of the bomb detectors at hundreds of checkpoints in the capital. ‘This company not only caused grave and massive losses of funds, but it has caused grave and massive losses of the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, by the hundreds and thousands, from attacks that we thought we were immune to because we have this device,’ said Ammar Tuma, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee.” McCormick only faces fraud charges, but perhaps negligent homicide would be more appropriate.

This tragic case also provides insight into why psychics are not used by the military. There are thousands of people who claim to have psychic powers. Some of them are on TV, others in neighborhood storefront shops. Some say they can read minds or auras; others say they can predict future events. But all of them claim to have useful, specific, accurate information about things outside their immediate knowledge.

If what they claim is true, this is exactly the sort of information that would save lives and help end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychics should not only be able to find Osama bin Laden, but dozens of others, from hostages to al-Qaeda leaders to suicide bombers.

Psychics should have been able to prevent the December 30 suicide bombing that killed eight CIA officers in Afghanistan. The attack was carried out by an al-Qaeda double agent who had been allowed onto the base. Surely a real psychic would have been able to predict the attack, or at least identify the man as a threat.

If psychics can do what they claim, why aren't they helping locate terrorists or IEDs (improvised explosive devices)? Why is the Pentagon spending billions of dollars on mine-detecting equipment and additional armor on vehicles? Why are thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, maimed for life, by bombs that could be detects with psychic powers?

The only logical explanation is that (like the bogus bomb detectors) the psychics can’t do what they claim. If they could, they would be protecting our national security and helping save innocent lives. Like all forms of bunkum and pseudoscience, they completely fail when applied to important, life-or-death situations.