Last night on A Current Affair they ran a story of a man who had a phobia of swallowing solid food. It had come on in the last 18 months, and now he couldn't eat anything, and was practically living on nutrient shakes. My fiance, and my sister's husband were very dubious about the whole thing, although my sister and I thought it was semi-plausible. People do have some very curious phobias.

But then they brought on an expert who sat with the man for a morning, and just by working his way up from liquids to gradually more solid food, he was able to overcome the phobia. In one morning. A severe phobia that had lasted 18 monthes of not eating. Even when he claimed he really wanted to eat, but just couldn't. Cured in one morning.

That was the part we didn't find so plausable. If it had taken a few months, or even weeks, then sure.

They tried to make the segment scientific, by showing diagrams of the brain, highlighting where phobias operate from, and where normal eating function should come from. I thought it was good that they were slotting science into it, although they could have used science in a more legit story. If the public realises how unrealistic the story sounded, and associate that with the science content, then in gives science a bad name.

As science communicators we are responsible for responsible science. (Double word use intended). We are ambassadors for science - so be careful little mouth what you say.