The worst place to get information....the internet. With no way of verifying who wrote what, and in the case of
http://www.cancer-health.org/Brain_cancer.html, not a single actual reference (besides a name drop of a supposed doctor here and there) this website is essentially useless. If you look hard enough in the literature you can find published, peer reviewed research that counters even the most basic and well-understood science. There are thousands of journals out there, most of them are crap for people who need publications for tenure and have editors who are just trying to fill the pages every month (I publish in the area of immunology, a very large field, but will only publish in a handful of the top most respected journals. Not because I'm a science snob, because all the other journals run bad science, crap research). Hence, we are back to the idea that not all research is created equal; some research that has major flaws is still published (and nonreputible web sites try to "prove" there point" by using this bad science). How do I know this is a bad website? The lack of obvious references, no indication of the qualifications of the writers of the webpage, and the inflammatory nature of site all suggest this is not the best place to get your info. The question of when can you trust the website? When it's from an obviously credible source (i.e. The National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, CDC, and major well-known Universities). I must stress that even then, the literature/site must still be critically evaluated (usually by someone who knows the subject inside-and-out). Like I eluded to in an earlier thread...I can clone a gene and could probably understand how a transmission in a car works, but you won't find me out in drive way trying to fix the transmissions because I'll leave that up to professionals who understand the intricacies. Science is the same way. It's easy to be let down a path that very convincingly shows you that x, y, & z must be occurring. In actuality, this may be far from the truth.
Be carefull what you choose to listen to and read. The smartest thing always in any situation, if your not an expert, is to find someone who is and can help you to understand it.
