Is there no limit to academic foolishness?

I was amazed to read in The Guardian’s blogs that a Professor Joseph Ferrari from DePaul University in Chicago claims procrastination is a serious disease that needs to be recognized and treated by clinicians. He blames the ‘condition’ for everything from depression, low self-esteem, and insomnia, to “discouraging visits to the dentist or doctor,” and “more accidents at home involving unmended appliances.” (“Oh, I’ll do it tomorrow”)

Another academic, Professor Piers Steel from Calgary University has calculated, apparently, that: “the beeps notifying the arrival of email are . . . causing a 0.5 per cent drop in gross domestic product in the United States, costing the economy $70bn a year.” How he works this out is beyond me — and I suspect beyond any kind of logic or commonsense. (“Hi-tech is turning us all into time-wasters”). Continued

Playing classical piano music to patients prior to surgery has unexpected benefits

In an article in The Guardian, Susan Tomes reports a study by an eye surgeon in Hawaii that found playing live classical piano music in the “preoperative holding area” produced a beneficial decrease in heart rate and other signs of anxiety once the patient was in the operating theater (“Going under the knife? Ask for a concerto first”).

There seems to be something about classical music — maybe the gentler tempo and strong melodic line of many pieces — that has a power to relax not offered by more up-beat, popular genres. I know that, when I was at university, I always studied to the sound of classical music in the background. I still much prefer to hear classical pieces if I’m feeling stressed.

Even when driving, I find that music that is too fast, aggressively rhythmic or loud adds to my anxiety and distracts me from what I’m doing. In heavy traffic, I have to turn it off. Continued

A world without trust is a world most people don’t want to live in

Part of what makes life livable is a sense that there are some people whom you can trust pretty much all the time. We all know that there are cheats in the world, as well as confidence tricksters, liars and many other kinds of untrustworthy people. Nevertheless, we have to trust others to make it possible to trade, govern and be governed and know what to believe and how to live our lives. If no one is trustworthy, any kind of civilized life becomes impossible.

That’s what this report by The International Herald Tribune on the incidence of scientific fraud in the United States is so worrying (“Scientific Fraud: There’s more of it than you think”). Most of us believe that one mark of being a ‘professional’ is adherence to a set of ethical standards. Scientists are honor-bound to report their results truthfully, abide by proper standards of research and objectivity, and provide an honest statement of their findings. Since their findings can have a massive impact on many aspects of people’s lives, from health to career direction, we need to trust them. Indeed, in our technology-obsessed world, people and governments seem to place almost an unquestioning reliance on the statements of the people in white lab coats. Continued

How false beliefs become fixed in people’s minds

Source Amnesia diagram
Source: Wikipedia

As we remember things, we also forget where we heard them or who told us about them. As a result, we easily forget whether a supposed fact is true or was originally merely a rumor.

Even when we are told something with a good many caveats attached, when it comes back into the mind, the disclaimers have probably been detached somehow, so we recall it as factual.

That’s the claim of this article in The International Herald Tribune (“Your brain lies to you”). The authors, Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, explain how information is moved around and processed in the brain before being stored in memory. It is this processing and re-processing that strips the supposed fact from the context in which it was originally received as data. Continued

We aren’t becoming more cynical, we’re becoming more dependent on authority and simplistic views of the truth

Ben Goldacre, writing about a week ago in “Comment is Free,” the blog network of the British newspaper The Guardian, mentioned an interesting study into the way the media handle science stories (“Why reading should not be believing”).

The researchers found that 65% of stories didn’t correctly deal with “the study methodology and the quality of the evidence.” Obsessed with giving out eye-catching ‘truths’ from authority figures in white lab-coats, these reporters skidded over any drawbacks or uncertainties and reduced the numerical information in the studies to simple headlines, preferably with big numbers in them. Continued

. . . now we have health issues linked to personality traits

It seems that just about every personality trait comes with its own characteristic type of disease, according to an article in Britain’s Daily Mail (courtesy of The Huffington Post>)(“Your personality type could decide what makes you ill”).

The article, by Roger Dobson, lists research that suggests personality traits are more significant than previously thought in future health. Quite how the mechanism works is unknown, though it may be a mixture of behavioral pressures and genetic tendencies.

The article then helpfully lists a series of personality traits and the diseases linked to them. Here are some examples Continued

Your sexual orientation may be linked to brain configuration

According to Healthzone.ca (part of the website of The Toronto Star), a study has found similarities in MRI scans both between the brains of gay men and straight women and between the brains of lesbians and straight men (“Gayness linked to brain”).

A new Swedish study shows significant similarities between the brains of homosexual men and straight women and between the brains of lesbians and heterosexual men. Some researchers are saying this provides important proof that people are born gay and don’t choose to act that way. Continued

Researchers have found that chimps use hugs and kisses to offer sympathy to others who get pushed around. There is also suggestive evidence of such behavior in large-brained birds and dogs (”Chimps Calm Each Other With Hugs, Kisses: Study (PICTURES)“).

Here’s a ‘map’ you can use to get the most out of your siesta

The Boston Globe has published a simple, graphical guide to taking a nap. I guess Americans have never quite got the habit, which comes naturally to certain Europeans like the Spanish and Italians. Where I live in the desert Southwest, afternoon temperatures this past week have hovered between 106 and 111 degrees Fahrenheit (around 42 to 44 degrees Celsius). The only sensible thing to do in heat like that is take a nap. And we don’t even have to content with the high humidity that turns similar or lower temperatures into potential killers.

Besides, researchers are now telling us that even a short nap in the middle of the day — or any other time you need one — makes you mentally more alert and improves your judgment and decision making. It also improves blood pressure and lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke. I guess the main thing that still stops many people from heeding this advice is that quintessentially American bug bear: the Puritan Work Ethic. Continued

Maybe all the injunctions to show your emotions and let it all hang out aren’t as sensible as their proposers claim

As a British person living in the United States, I quickly got used to all the stereotypes about cold, stuffy, screwed-up and up-tight Brits (doubtless wearing bowler hats and carrying rolled umbrellas) versus the open, emotionally-balanced, well-adjusted Yanks.

While I can see the benefit to some people of talking about their problems openly, I still nursed a basic aversion to telling perfect strangers about my troubles and deluging friends and family with raw emotion.

Now I have some scientific support, reported in the British magazine The New Statesman, but produced by Dr. Mark Seery of the University at Buffalo. Continued