Dr. Andy Wai Kan Yeung (pictured here, below) of the University of Hong Kong analyzed several years’ worth of Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies. He published a paper telling how he did it, and what he found. You can download the paper. Here’s the citation: “Not just nickel-and-dime: An analysis of journal articles winning Ig Nobel […]
Ancient advice to students to “get out of the classroom and breath some fresh air” has never been quantified to the satisfaction of people who want to quantify it better. A new study takes a brute-force approach: “Minimum Time Dose in Nature to Positively Impact the Mental Health of College-Aged Students, and How to Measure […]
The Neuroskeptic blog looks at how how a super-masterful sausage slicer makes sausage slices: Scientific Salami Slicing: 33 Papers from 1 Study “Salami slicing” refers to the practice of breaking scientific studies down into small chunks and publishing each part as a separate paper. Given that scientists are judged in large part by the number […]
The Journal of Interrupted Studies, which also seems to call itself the Journal of Interrupted Science, is a proposed publication for scholars who have suffered interruptions in their lives and careers. An article in the Oxford Student explains: Coffee seems to be Paul Ostwald’s preferred editorial tool when it comes to The Journal of Interrupted […]
The Slate Star Codex blog has a curious essay called “Beware The Man of One Study“. Here’s how it begins: Aquinas famously said: beware the man of one book. I would add: beware the man of one study. For example, take medical research. Suppose a certain drug is weakly effective against a certain disease. After […]
Many psychology* studies study volunteers who have agreed to be studied. Those studies do not study anyone else. How universal, you might wonder, are the findings those studies report? This Research Digest essay, about a study about studies of people who agreed to be studied, points out that people who are agreeable are more agreeable […]
Cigarettes are useful for different purposes. Perhaps the best purpose is suggested in this study: “Cigarettes may be useful for distance runners?!? (or, How to prove anything with a review article),” Last winter the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a fascinating article by Ken Myers discussing the (as-yet unexamined) benefits of cigarette smoking on endurance […]
The Association for Graveyard Studies takes a scholarly approach to graveyards and the contents thereof. Their official word on themselves: The Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) was founded in 1977 for the purpose of furthering the study and preservation of gravestones. AGS is an international organization with an interest in gravemarkers of all periods and […]
Join us this Saturday, for the Improbable Research session at ARISIA, in Boston. Marc Abrahams will introduce an all-star lineup. The performers will do dramatic, two-minute readings from bizarre studies collected by the Annals of Improbable Research. Each performer will be unfamiliar with the study she or he is reading aloud, aside from skimming through it immediately before the […]