John Kerr • Dec 18, 2016 •
As the big day approaches, there is no shortage of scientists turning their inquisitive minds to the mysteries of Christmas. In the spirit of the festive season, Sciblogs brings you a tinsel entwined ‘wrap-up’ of Noel-related research. Naughty or nice? Not so important for Santa Santa pays a visit to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. Source: BelfastLive. Read More
Eric Crampton • Aug 06, 2015 •
Some sharks shouldn't be jumped. This may be one.The Green Man pub on Victoria St is about to launch a stag semen "milked" stout, created by brewery Choice Bros and timed to celebrate the lead-up to Beervana.With an added measure of "export-quality" de... Read More
Eric Crampton • Aug 04, 2015 •
Oh, folks will have fun working out explanations for this one.Brookings suggests that increasing college graduation rates could be behind it, where a college degree is required to become an officer. The drop in the IQ threshold for getting a college de... Read More
John Pickering • Jul 14, 2015 •
44 years ago a feather and a hammer were dropped at the same time on the moon by Commander David Scott of Apollo 15. An experiment that continues to cause wonder and inspire children today. Indeed, it may well have been an experiment children would have dreamed up for the astronauts to do. This post is simply to […] … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jul 05, 2015 •
Since none of us can really affect political outcomes, it's generally irrational to pay too much attention to politics. On that measure, men are far less rational than women - or at least by the studies of political knowledge I've come across (two exam... Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 19, 2015 •
Washington Post's WonkBlog draws some lessons from Westeros.Their summary list:People aren't good at stocking up for the future.The economy still doesn't employ women to their full potential.America could be the Iron Bank, but does it want to?The Fed i... Read More
John Pickering • May 03, 2015 •
In my “most cringing” file, ranking somewhere alongside brussel sprouts and Abba, are PowerPoint(TM) presentations that are unreadable and distracting. I have made it my mission to rid the world of annoying animation, fantastic fonts, garrulous graphs, and tortuous tables. The following are my commandments – ignore them and dreadful things will be visited on […] … Read More
Eric Crampton • Mar 07, 2015 •
Did you hear the story of the indebted journalist who, when on assignment hanging out as a beggar for a while to be able to write on life from the streets, found he made more money begging than he did as a journalist? So he quit his journalism job and ... Read More
Eric Crampton • Mar 04, 2015 •
Here's a fun one for those of you still based at a university. All of you put together a Human Ethics Review proposal for a field experiment on Human Ethics Review proposals. Here is the proposal within my proposal. Each of you would propose putting together a panel of researchers at different universities. You would propose that each of your … Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 27, 2015 •
So the official line seems to be that industry money always corrupts, but that public funding never does. Here's Otago's Jim Mann:As a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) nutrition advisory committee, Mann himself cannot accept funding or gifts of any kind from the commercial sector."I'm glad that while with WHO, I've been in a position where I've … Read More