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Over at DrugMonkey, PhysioProf notes a recent retraction of an article from the Journal of Neuroscience. What's interesting about this case is that the authors retract the whole article without any explanation for the retraction. As PhysioProf writes:
There is absolutely no mention of why the…
Yesterday, I had an interesting discussion on Twitter with @jason_pontin (and a couple of others chimed in, e.g., @TomLevenson and @scootsmoon) about the role of quotes in journalism. Specifically, about the importance of providing a brief quote from sources interviewed for a piece. The difference…
ScienceBloggers are up in arms about the cover article of New Scientist which boldly proclaims "Darwin was Wrong." The article, authored by Graham Lawton, explains that occurrences such as horizontal gene transfer and hybridization transform the shape of Darwin's famous tree into something more…
About a year and a half ago, I applied a heapin' helpin' of not-so-Respectful Insolence to a a clueless article about the the "triumph" of New Age medicine. The article channeled the worst fallacies of apologists for alternative medicine. Basically, its whole idea appeared to be that, even if most…
Wow! Based upon my limited knowledge (gained from my biologist wife, Deeper Thought) even *I* am stunned by the wrong-headedness of this piece! Deeper will probably blow a gasket!
I think the best response to the article is the following:
A man driving through the countryside comes across a shepherd and his flock of sheep. On a whim, he stops the car and calls the shepherd over.
"If I can tell exactly how many animals you have in your herd, can I take one of your sheep?"
"Sure" the shepherd replies.
"341"
"Wow!" the shepherd says, "that's amazing! Go ahead and have a sheep."
The man duly picks a beast and is about to bundle it into the back of his car, when the shepherd calls out to him:
"Hey, if I tell you what professiong you're in, can I get my animal back?"
"Sure" the man replies.
"You are a theoretical biologist."
"I sure am! How on earth did you know that?"
"You've taken my dog."
Ooh! Ooh! Science and research humor!
OK, a physicist, a mechanical engineer, and an economist are marooned on a desert island. One day a crate of canned food washed up on shore, but they have no can opener!
The physicist says "Well, I can test a couple by dropping them to see how much force we need to burst open the can without losing too much food...."\
The engineer chimes in, "No, no, no! Let me take a few days to make a can opener out of stone!"
The economist pipes up, "Really! And you call yourselves men of science! Just assume can opener!"
A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."
Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."
Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"