Category: Science

“Your Science Reporting Truly Sucks…” – The Editor’s ‘Apology’

It’s not just tabloids that are having their pants pulled down at the moment. Medical journals are too.

Sorry, We're Open by marsupialrobotA few weeks the BJGP – Europe’s leading general practice journal – heralded apparently ground-breaking research on the benefits of acupuncture. On closer inspection, the research was poorly constructed, drew dubious conclusions and biased in extremis.

I wrote an outraged letter, complaining of how such a ‘peer-reviewed’ periodical could promote such utter tosh as ‘ground breaking research’. Two months have passed and the editors have had the humility to publish not just my correspondence, but that of nine others(!) Clearly I wasn’t the only one hacked off.

To readers, the deconstruction and utter lambasting from doctors, professors and lay-readers was conclusive. It’s was a shame then that the editor’s ‘response’ was so utterly lacklustre… Read more

Kid’s Behaviour is much worse than it used to be – Discuss!

UntitledOk class, now quieten down. Bryony – how many times do I have to tell you? Mobile phones away! Today we are going to be looking at an important topic: Childhood behaviour. In a moment, we’re going to try to get a serious answer to a controversial question. Oh Jimmy, please put that cigarette lighter away – I don’t think Becky appreciates her hair being set alight.

First, let me have a show of hands – how many of you think that school discipline and behaviour is getting worse? Now that’s interesting… Read more

Obama cracks a joke to the Atlantis Shuttle Crew – So why wasn’t it funny?

Shuttle Atlantis Crew aboard the International Space Station
Observed the entertained expressions!
In space, no one can hear the tumble-weed.

Obama: “I was just dialing out for pizza, and I didn’t expect to end up in space…”

Recently, the US President took some time out from his busy schedule to make a surprise phone call to the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew. Clearly in need of some light-hearted distraction from the doldrums of trying to resolve the incipient US debt crisis, he tried his hand at a potentially humorous ‘pizza delivery’ quip.

It was bad – toe-curlingly cringe-worthily bad. Watch it for yourself, and try not to squirm in embarrassment. I think it’s what’s known in the business as a ‘Dad’ joke… Read more

The IQ Myth and its Fascist origins – Just how Intelligent are You?

Rubik
Are you a puzzle-solving braniac?
Western culture has a peculiar fascination with ‘intelligence’. I’ve not taken an IQ test for years – and hopefully never will again. Being ‘intelligent’ is held in ludicrously high esteem (second probably only to good looks) that most people think they’ve either got it, or they haven’t.

The ‘doctrine’ of an inborn intelligence seems to be ingrained in academic thinking. If I had an apple for every time a student told me “I failed because I wasn’t clever enough”, I could probably quit lecturing and go into the cider-making business.

The truth is, the very idea of IQ, ‘intelligence’ and being ‘clever’ is hugely controversial. Did you know that the IQ test was developed and popularised by the Nazis? Fascist Germany used the test as a way to ‘ethnically cleanse’ less desirable out from their society.

Sadly, many of the early inaccurate, racist and pejorative assumptions about the IQ (“Intelligenz-Quotient”) test are still believed by many people today… Read more

The Brainstorming Myth: Why it doesn’t work and is a waste of time…

Day 31_ a cultural diverse team again!
Brainstorming: It doesn't work (very well). So why do we keep doing it?
Ok now class, today we’re going to be looking at myths in education. Now please pay attention. I have a question – In the TV show: The Apprentice, what’s the first thing candidates normally do to discuss and generate new ideas? Yes, you at the back? Speak up Roger so everyone can hear.

Well done, that’s right – they ‘brainstorm’…

It usually starts with one contestant standing up and exhorting, “Right let’s brainstorm all our ideas – I want some ‘blue-sky’ thinking!” So, out come the flip board and marker pens! It’s a group creativity technique has been around since the 1950s and is done in management meetings and school lessons alike. No one ever seems to question whether it actually works and – get this – it doesn’t… Read more

Dear Mr Editor, Your Science Reporting Truly Sucks…

Acupuncture Students at NYCTCM
Acupuncture may have benefit: But don't trust shoddy research
A letter to the editor of the British Journal of General Practice (The official periodical of the Royal College of General Practice and leading journal for family medicine in Europe):

Dear Professor Roger Jones,

Last month’s BJGP was noteworthy for several reasons. Most strikingly was the beautiful redesign and compelling headline, “Acupuncture: effective in a randomized trial for patients with unexplained symptoms”. Fantastic, I thought – groundbreaking research! So, it was with much anticipation that I removed the last shreds of cellophane to delve into your esteemed tome.

Sadly, it was wholly disappointing and somewhat incensing to read the actual acupuncture research. Heralded by you as “positive results” from a “randomized controlled trial” revealing “significant and sustained benefit [for patients] who frequently attend [GP clinics] with medically unexplained symptoms”. I fear these comments were more than liberal with the truth… Read more

New Research Asks: Could you hack a night shift?

Just too tired by fmgbainIt’s 5 am and you feel like death. Eight hours down and you’ve still got four more to go. With a mind like sludge, a phone rings and you need to sound attentive and informed. This isn’t going to be easy.

Me – I hate night shifts. Hours of dark, unrewarding loneliness accompanied with the odd things your digestive system does at four in the morning. Finishing means collapsing into bed utterly exhausted as the rest of the world enjoys their Cheerios. It is strange experience. Even stranger, is that so many people actually love working at night.

Some people must be better at it than others. Researchers from Bergen, Norway – a country known for very long, dark winters – compiled over 30 years of research to find out what makes a true ‘night worker’. Could this be you? Read on, to see if you are built to work the night shift… Read more

The Great Atlantic Divide – Why Europeans Riot (but American’s don’t)

A fireball erupts as civilians shriek and run for cover. A security officer burns and a gas mask-wearing man dashes through the smoke. Men beat each another with bats and stones. Shots are fired and grenades hurled as a city centre descends into chaos. Is this a scene from a warzone? No – this is modern-day Europe.

rage by how will i everAs Greek politicians try to balance the books by slashing pensions and cutting welfare, violence spills onto the streets of Athens. Protestors hold fists skyward and chant “Don’t obey the rich – fight back!” Amidst drastic ‘austerity measures’, such scenes are becoming frighteningly commonplace.

Spain, Iceland, Portugal and now Greece have witnessed their populace flooding the streets in protest of such ‘social injustice’. Europeans don’t like to take things lying down it seems; but this would never happen in the good old USA… Read more

Surely not! Is this Energy Drink marketed at Children!?

Children drinking Energy Drinks
Do you find this disturbing? (source totsandgiggles.com)
Sometimes anger gets the better of you. A morning trip to the supermarket left me enraged (and no, it wasn’t anything to do with the queues, car parking or customer service). The source of my fury was what I had seen for sale in the aisles. Were my eyes deceiving me or had I really just seen… an ‘Energy Drink’ for kids?

Concerns over high-caffeine drinks in children are well publicised but this morning I was troubled that one firm had well and truly overstepped the mark with their new drinks can design.

I could be wrong, it might just have been a trick of the light or an innocent oversight of their marketing team. I’ll let you decide whether you think this high-sugar caffeinated drink would appeal to a typical seven year old: Read more