Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am working on a paper for my science class. We had to find information on a subject and I chose crystals. I have a friend who believes crystals have energy in them and they vibrate on their own. She believes they heal people and that there are chakras in our bodies. She thinks if I put a purple crystal on my head it will cure my headache because the chakra there is colored purple.

I don't believe any of this at all. But I cannot find any thing on the internet that will tell me if crystals have energy or power or if they vibrate. She says all these things. I would like to prove her wrong in my paper.

Thank you for your help.

Hi Whirlwind,

Scibuddies is specifically set up for advising students on science fair projects, not helping you write a research paper.

The web has information about every topic imaginable, but putting together the right search string is key to nabbing the bits you want without having to spend hours reading through a zillion hits.

When i search, i try to make my string really specific. If I were trying to find evidence against the theory that crystals have healing powers, I would search for: do crystals have healing properties

The first hit I got from that search is from a website called The Skeptic's Dictionary and seems to have a pretty good overview of the subject and there are more references at the end for further reading:
http://www.skepdic.com/crystals.html

There's another good site for debunking pseudoscience called The Straight Dope:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ial-powers

I'm sure you know what the scientific method is and how real scientists perform repeatable, statistically analyzed experiments with data that gets published in peer-reviewed journals. I would suggest the best way to approach your paper is to select 3-5 reports that claim success in crystal healing and analyze them according to the requirements of the scientific method. What 'experiments' were done? How were the experiments done? Did they use appropriate controls? Was the data analyzed statistically? How large a sample [i.e., number of subjects] was used to test the hypothesis? Were experiments performed in a blinded fashion so the subjects and the experimenters did not know who was getting the real crystal treatment?

The last requirement, known in biomedical research as the double-blind, placebo-controlled approach, is the best test for determining whether or not a hypothesis is true. If this was not done in the chakra/crystal experiments then the data is highly suspect.

This would make a great science fair project, by the way. Why don't you consider doing it?

Best wishes,

Sybee

Thank you.

I did not see that it was a Science Fair. Now I do.

Neither of those articles tell me if crystals vibrate or have energy.

I guess I will fail this paper.

Hello whirlwind19,

Sybee gave you two very good links, and the first one definitely says that crystals do not vibrate and do not actually have healing properties. It is really up to you to do the research for your paper, and Sybee gave you a great start with more references for you to follow. I hope you were able to find the information you were seeking, and that you understand the point of your assignment was for you to learn how to do your own research.

Best wishes,
Heather