How to Make Comics Sound Like Science

Another one of #canidothistypeofresearchtoo papers.

“The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely ... one small village of the indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium ... .”

Roman nationality, hypoglossal paresis, lost helmet, and ingestion of the magic potion by the aggressor were significantly correlated with severe initial impairment of consciousness.

Were any Gauls given a placebo potion against which the medical efficacy of the supposedly active potion might have been measured? A double-blind test would surely have been appropriate here.

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~ MJ

Mustaches make you creepier

Actually, it really IS science. A study had 351 women rate attractiveness of 10 men in the following stages of facial hair: clean shaven, light stubble (5 days unshaven), heavy stubble (10 days unshaven), and fully bearded.

Heavy stubble was viewed as the most attractive, while clean-shaven and fully bearded tied. Light stubble was not viewed as attractive, as it was often too patchy.

And worth mentioning: 5 Year Impact Factor: 4,249.

Also, they used MANova for statistics:-) very topic appropriate.

Link to the full paper.

Happy Friday,

M.

And how was your spring break?

M.

Another Nature Edition

Well, I can contribute quite a few papers. Also in the EPIC FAIL category:-)

MM

The Methodology Section Translator

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M

Why is it so hard to graduate

M

What you end up writing in papers....and what you actually mean part II

Esmeralda (she has a blog) posted this in the comments to this post. I think it deserves a post of its own. 

The author writes:
It is believed.
REALLY means:
I think.

The author writes:
It is generally believed.
REALLY means:
A couple of other guys think so too.

The author writes:
It is not unreasonable to assume.
REALLY means:
If you believe this, you'll believe anything.

The author writes:
Of great theoretical importance.
REALLY means:
I find it kind of interesting.

The author writes:
Of great practical importance.
REALLY means:
I can get some mileage out of it.

The author writes:
The 4 hour sample was not studied.
REALLY means:
I dropped it on the floor.

The author writes:
The 4 hour determination may not be significant.
REALLY means:
I dropped it on the floor, but scooped most of it up.

The author writes:
The significance of these results is unclear.
REALLY means:
Look at the pretty artifact.

The author writes:
It has not been possible to provide definitive answers.
REALLY means:
The experiment was negative, but at least I can publish the data somewhere.

The author writes:
It might be argued that.
REALLY means:
I have such a good answer for that objection that I shall now raise it.

The author writes:
Much additional work will be required.
REALLY means:
This paper is not very good, but neither are all the others in this miserable field.

The author writes:
These investigations proved highly rewarding.
REALLY means:
My grant is going to be renewed.

How to Read (And How Not to Write) a Scientific Paper

A friend of mine just emailed me this. Hits too close to home...

Update: Part II

k

Improved fluorescent proteins

Sorry for posting all these papers:-) I promise this is the last one for some time. The whole story is available here.

Yellow is my favorite. Thanks to T. for sharing this.

k

Can I write a paper like this, please

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Legendary abstract

This abstract is legen-wait for it-dary ;)

(source)

And another one

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When will my publications be this cool:-)

PS. I have a couple of awesome Christmas posts prepared for you.

k

20 Strange Papers

... probably from the minds of sexually frustrated grad students

My only thought after watching this: why doesn’t she have a vagina?

k

Methylation determines fibroblast activation and fibrogenesis in the kidney

When I came across this paper I couldn't do much else then wonder who was the reviewer. And it was published in Nature Medicine, among authors are people from Harvard Medical School.

Part A enlargement.

Have I missed something or is this just a perfect example how much should we believe in the stuff from papers?

I think we agree those electrophoresis figures are wicked weird:-)

If you want to read the whole paper click here.

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Lap dancers & tip earnings & science

I bet everyone now wishes to be doing research like this:-D Click on the picture for a link.

Highlights:
While such laboratory-based findings are theoretically important, only four studies have, to our knowledge, investigated the real-world attractiveness effects of human estrus outside the laboratory.
Yes, its completely necessary to visit a strip club. O, I mean gentelmens club.

In this article, we build upon such research by presenting the first real-world economic evidence of male sensitivity to cyclic changes in female attractiveness.
Well, girls, we should use this information wisely. Now we know when we will get just everything from him.

All participants in this study worked as lap dancers in Albuquerque “gentlemen's clubs” circa November 2006 through January 2007. The clubs serve alcohol; they are fairly dark, smoky, and loud (with a DJ playing rock, rap, or pop music). Most club patrons are Anglo or Hispanic men aged 20 to 60, ranging from semiskilled laborers to professionals; they typically start the evening by getting a stack of US$20 bills from the club's on-site ATM and having a couple of drinks.
Indeed, a very thorough analysis with a huge scientific importance.

Dancers in these clubs perform topless but not bottomless; law requires them to wear underwear, bikinis, or similar garments to cover the pubis. Thus, menstruating dancers can wear tampons (with strings clipped short or tucked up) and change them often during heavy-flow days, without revealing any visual signs of menstruation. Dancers typically wear very little perfume, but they often have breast implants, dye their head hair, trim their pubic hair, shave their legs and underarms, and adopt a “stage name” different from their real first name. They typically do regular aerobic and resistance exercise to maintain a fit, lean body shape.
I always wanted to know how these strip clubs work.  

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