Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle website, Goop, has made another lapse in judgment by publishing unfounded scientific claims once again. This time, it used the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) history of sound scientific and technological knowledge to sell another product with debatable health benefits: the Body Vibes smart stickers.
According to the original description from Goop, the bio-frequency healing stickers use the same conductive carbon material that NASA uses to track astronaut's vitals in its spacesuits. The problem is that NASA, through its representative, denied using any type of conductive carbon material in its spacesuits.
Well, that's embarrassing.
Goop 'Apologizes' For Its Blunder
Aside from the NASA representative's statement, the space agency's former human research division chief scientist, Mark Shelhamer, also expressed his suspicion about the bio-frequency stickers.
"Not only is the whole premise like snake oil, the logic doesn't even hold up," Shelhamer said.
Goop has already removed the section mentioning NASA in its smart stickers' product page and expressed an apology to both the space agency and the consumers for its oversight. According to Goop, it has already contacted the smart stickers' manufacturer to address the claim.
"As we have always explained ... companies we profile do not necessarily represent the views of goop ... we've gone back to the company to inquire about the claim and removed the claim from our site until we get additional verification," Goop said in a statement.
It sounds like an apology.
"We constantly strive to improve our site [... and] our processes for evaluating the products and companies featured," it added.
Tapping other experts to evaluate alternative products and provide recommendations could also help with the process.
The 'True' Story
According to the statement from the smart stickers' manufacturer, Body Vibes, the company was also a victim of misinformation.
"We apologize to NASA, Goop, our customers and our fans for this communication error. We never intended to mislead anyone. We have learned that our engineer was misinformed by a distributor about the material in question," the company said in a statement.
It also claimed accountability for not doing proper research with regard to the distributor's claims, which led to its blunder. However, the company still assures consumers that the product is still effective despite not having an actual spacesuit material in the bio-frequency health stickers.
The company also removed the claim from its own website.
Shady Frequencies
AlphaBioCentrix, the biotech company behind bio-frequency merchandise, was not at all helpful in legitimizing the health benefits of such products.
"Without going into a long explanation ... I found a way to tap into the human body's bio-frequency ... Most of the research that has been collected is confidential and is held as company private information," AlphaBioCentrix founder Richard Eaton said.
Basically, there is no way science can back up the claims if the "researchers" don't even want to show any data. It could be real, but it could also be just another hype or future regret.
