As far back as 1968, it seems, “Assertions that studying is best done at a desk rather than on a bed [were] largely untested.” Prompting Robert Gifford (who was then a research assistant at the University of California, but who is now a professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Canada) along with […]
Tag: study
A scholarly look at scholars’ amusing study titles
Rolf Zwaan (co-author of the Ig Nobel Prize winning study “Leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller: Posture-modulated thought“) is blogging about at amusing titles given to scholarly studies. He looks especially at his own field: I culled amusing titles from the 2003-2012 issues of Psych Science. It was not always easy to […]
Non-Newtonian sink flow cusps self-quibble
“Instead of in general in particular it should say in particular. Instead of sharp cusps it should say non-axisymmetryc cusps.” So say authors of the study Non-Newtonian sink flow cusps Authors: Diego Samano, Roberto Zenit arXiv:0910.3269 BONUS QUESTION: Did they commit a spelling error with the word “axisymmetryc”?
Engineering: Taking Advantage of the Promiscuous One
Promiscuity appeals to chemical engineers, under certain circumstances. One set of those circumstances is described in the paper: “Engineering Sialidase Specificity: Taking Advantage of the Promiscuous One,” J.N. Watson, A.J. Bennet, presented at the 23rd International Carboyhdrate Symposium, held in Whistler, BC, Canada, July 23-28, 2006. The authors are at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada.
How he reads a table of numbers
Peter Freed, feeling provoked, muses about how he reads a science paper (and in this passage, how he reads a table in a science paper): Now listen: most non-scientists see a table like this and freak out. They take around 3 seconds to decide they can’t understand it, get scared of feeling stupid in the face […]
Cockroach Under-the-Tongue Safety Study
Investigator Mark Natter alerts us to an ongoing study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): Sublingual Cockroach Safety Study (SCSS) This study is ongoing, but not recruiting participants. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00434421 Purpose: Immunotherapy may help reduce symptoms of allergy and asthma. Problems concerning compliance and adverse events with subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy […]
Heavy Meals / Heavy Metals: Typo?
This study’s title appears to have a typo. Does it? “Heavy meals in urban roadside soils, part 1: effect of particle size fractions on heavy metals partitioning,” Xue-Song Wang, Yong Qin and Yong-Kang Chen, Environmental Geology, vol. 50, 2006, pp. 1061–1066. The authors are at Huaihai Institute of Technology, China University of Mining and Technology, […]
Secure: Withdrawn Because Insecure
The authors of a study describing “Unconditionally Secure Quantum Coin Tossing” withdrew the study because, they say, the scheme is insecure. Details: Unconditionally Secure Quantum Coin Tossing via Entanglement Swapping arXiv:quant-ph/0012139, 2001 Authors: Yong-Sheng Zhang, Chuan-Feng Li, Guang-Can Guo (University of Science and Technology of China) Comments: Withdraw. The scheme presented is insecure ABSTRACT: An […]
Sexy, in a word (in a title)
Investigator Sarah Keedy asks: This article has the term “Sexy” in the title which is utterly not borne out whatsoever in the text (except maybe to people who really care about this topic, of whom I am not one), nor is the term FOUND anywhere else in the text, suggesting it is not even a […]