Improbable Research

The Aer-O-Scope? is a self-navigating, automatic colonoscopy device that begins at the rectum and proceeds, in a backwards fashion, as far (and around bends!) into the colon as you need it to, according to the manufacturer.

It is a product for people who have deep faith in technology.

Again [see mini-AIR, November 2003, section 03], someone has failed to heed the lesson of an Ig Nobel Prize winner, and has suffered for it. The Sydney Morning Herald reports, on April 30, 2006, that:

ROLLING Stones guitarist Keith Richards is recovering in an Auckland hospital after suffering head injuries when he fell out of a coconut tree at a Fiji resort.

Richards did not heed the warning issued by 2001 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize winner Peter Barss. Dr. Barss won the Ig for his impactful medical report “Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts.” Published in the Journal of Trauma (vol. 24, no. 11, 1984, pp. 990-1), the study explained that:

Falling coconuts can cause injury to the head, back, and shoulders. A 4-year review of trauma admissions to the Provincial Hospital, Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, revealed that 2.5% of such admissions were due to being struck by falling coconuts. Since mature coconut palms may have a height of 24 up to 35 meters and an unhusked coconut may weigh 1 to 4 kg, blows to the head of a force exceeding 1 metric ton are possible. Four patients with head injuries due to falling coconuts are described. Two required craniotomy. Two others died instantly in the village after being struck by dropping nuts.

Dr. Barss is now based at United Arab Emirates University.

(Thanks to Investigator William J. Maloney for bringing this to our attention.)

How fuzzy a dose of statistics does it take to generate a clear news headline? Publicity-minded statisticians can delight in the results generated by a study published in the May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The study, which is credited to ten (10) authors, has already inspired a powerful HealthDay report headline, on April 27, 2006:

NYC Teens Drank More After 9/11

New research into the effects of Sept. 11, 2001, suggests that alcohol served as a refuge for some New York City teens who were directly exposed to the terrorist attacks…

Nearly 11 percent said they’d been drinking more since 9/11. The students were 1.8 times more likely to report heavier drinking if they’d been directly exposed to the attacks — if they had been in the World Trade Center area at the time, watched them closely on television or had a family member who was involved…

[Co-author Cristiane] Duarte cautioned that the drinking statistics aren’t as reliable as they could be because the researchers didn’t survey the teens before 9/11.

Jim Hanas took many photographs of people taking photographs of the Chrysler Building in New York City.

Parents Who Fight May Harm Children’s Future Emotional Development.

So says the startling headline on a February 10, 2005 press release issued by the Society for Research in Child Development.

(Thanks to Investigator Kristine Danowski for bringing this to our attention.)

There is a new method for assessing the value of prayer. It was developed by practical people who generously share their tricks-of-the-trade. Their latest work appears in an April 26, 2006 press release from the Christian Communication Network:

Clergy in the Nation’s Capital and Across the Country Pray for Lower Gas Prices

Event planned for Thursday, April 27, 2006 from 12:00 Noon to 2:00PM, on Pennsylvania Avenue between North Carolina Avenue and 4th Street SE, and on Pray Live www.praylive.com, 1-888-PRAYLIVE…. People who have seen God show up in their lives as a result of prayer know that God answers prayer.

The same accounting method was applied recently to people who underwent heart surgery. A formal study summed up the what and how:

“Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer,” H. Benson, et al., American Heart Journal, vol. 151, no. 4, 2006, pp. 934-42.

(Thanks to Investigator Christina Broyles for bringing this to our attention.)