The capitalism of hippie babble

A great comic from the folks over at xkcd:

Science search engine

So you want to know what scientific research there is out the about Tai chi? Why not try the scientific search engine:

http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/search?q=%22tai+chi%22+&t=all&sort=0&g=s

One review article I read had the following conlcusion in it's abstract:

RESULTS: Seventy-seven articles met the inclusion criteria. The nine outcome category groupings that emerged were bone density (n = 4), cardiopulmonary effects (n = 19), physical function (n = 16), falls and related risk factors (n = 23), quality of life (n = 17), self-efficacy (n = 8), patient-reported outcomes (n = 13), psychological symptoms (n = 27), and immune function (n = 6).

CONCLUSIONS: Research has demonstrated consistent, significant results for a number of health benefits in RCTs, evidencing progress toward recognizing the similarity and equivalence of Qigong and Tai Chi.

 Seems like there's some good health stuff there (as we all knew - it's common sense). But also as we knew there's nothing there about "chi energy" or proof about hippy cosmic energy forces man.... 

Next time you read something about "how western science is just starting to understand how.....blah blah" have a wander over to scrius or google scholar and check for yourself.