Personal Science, Self-Experimentation, Scientific Method
There are several ways to realize the vast implausibility of — and thus the vast amount of information conveyed by — radiation hormesis. If you are not an experimental scientist, you may not realize how incredibly hard it is to find a treatment that substantially improves something complex. Think how hard it would be to …
We need personal science, I say, because professional scientists lack freedom and have goals (e.g., status) other than progress. Art Robinson agrees: “Most [professional scientists] are trapped,” [he said.] Trapped by government money. Filling out grant requests, politicking to be well-liked, serving on grant review boards, going to the meetings to be seen by others, will …
A month ago, I changed web browsers from Firefox to Chrome (which recently became the most popular browser). Firefox crashed too often (about once per day). Chrome crashes much less often (once per week?) presumably because it confines trouble caused by a bad tab to that tab. “Separate processes for each tab is EXACTLY what makes Chrome …
Continue reading “Web Browsers, Black Swans and Scientific Progress”
Failure of global warming predictions. “The Met Office is unrepentant.“ Radiation deficiency? There hasn’t been anything new about radiation hormesis in years (not counting Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile), but it is so important I will keep mentioning it. Unlikely fermented food: natto-coffee gelatin sandwich. More about the Weber heart transplant story Wide-ranging plagiarism by head …
In order of quality (best first): 1. The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics (published 2011) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith. The best book about political science I have read. A leader always needs supporters. The essential difference between dictatorships and democracies is how many. Full of data …
I believe we need to eat plenty of microbes to be healthy, an idea I call the umami hypothesis. I have blogged about it many times. Here is an overview of those posts. 1. Psychological. We like foods with sour, umami, and complex tastes/flavors. My evolutionary explanation: these preferences increased microbe intake, which increased health. …
Continue reading “The Umami Hypothesis: We Need to Eat Microbes”
Alcohol is bad for your liver, we’re told. However, moderate amounts may be good for your liver. A recent meta-analysis found that men who drank moderate amounts of alcohol had considerably less risk (a risk ratio of 0.3) of liver cirrhosis than men who drank no alcohol. It wasn’t clear if some forms of alcohol …
Continue reading “Moderate Alcohol Consumption Associated With Less Cirrhosis”
Comparing one elbow to the other. I have no idea what “clinical epidemiology” is. The level of self-deprecation is remarkable. From the BMJ Christmas issue. The value of cod liver oil. From the BMJ Christmas issue. More evidence for radiation hormesis (beneficial effects of small amounts of radiation). Evolutionary medicine reaches the BMJ. The word …
In America, I often hear praise for “Chinese Medicine”. By this they mean Traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes acupuncture and techniques that harness hormesis. I tend to agree. Medicine as now practiced in China is a different story. Last night, I had dinner with some of my students. I asked them what their parents thought …
Super-old Ashkenazi Jews. Did they live to be more than a hundred “in spite of” their “bad habits” (eating steak & pork chops, smoking, refusal of Lipitor) or because of those habits? Small amounts of smoking could easily be beneficial due to (or illustrating) hormesis. Does Hollywood have a sense of humor? In the new …
Lard chic. ““I might have a cold,” she says. “Eat this, then,” I say, proffering a piece of hot toast with a thin, transparent slice of cured pork fat.” Skeptical Science is a blog devoted to rebutting every argument offered by AGW skeptics like me. Bishop Hill points out that after two comments were critical …
Recently the Guardian ran an article by David Colquhoun, a professor of pharmacology at University College London, complaining about peer review. His complaints were innocuous; what was interesting was his example. How bad is peer review? he said. Look what gets published! He pointed to a study of the efficacy of acupuncture and included graphs …
FT on the First Quantified Self Conference great library of articles about hormesis. Such as Hotel Hormesis (from the MIT undergraduate research journal). Pay attention to lunch. “Rated vividness of lunch memory was negatively correlated with snack intake.” Dean of medicine at the University of Alberta plagiarizes well-known graduation speech. Philosophy professor says this “merits …
Low-level radon exposure appears to reduce lung cancer Dubious science of climate crusaders. “The committee included members whose careers depended on global warming alarmism, and the predictable result was that not one word was changed.” Graduate school in the humanities is for the already-privileged. What’s especially interesting about this column is that it appeared in …
More about radiation hormesis. Introductory. Fungus improves violin tone. Combines fermented foods and global warming. The New Yorker ran a cartoon that the editors didn’t understand. Added later: Now that I know where the cartoon came from (see comments), I’m afraid this is the most tasteless cartoon I have ever seen in the magazine. How …
Shangri-La Diet story. “The day before last I had an in n out burger, fries and cream pie. It was my B-day!” radiation hormesis and Japan speaking of Japan, beauty nose: lose weight and make your nose more attractive Andrew Gelman illustrates how to plot data. Incidentally, time-use data like what Andrew plots led me …
I am in Beijing. The smog is bad. It is more humid than usual and the air is dirtier than usual. At his blog, James Fallows, who is also in Beijing, has posted pictures and pollution measurements. (Incidentally, Eamonn Fingleton, an excellent writer, will be guest-blogging there. In Praise of Hard Industries is one of …
Hormesis: A Revolution in Biology, Toxicology and Medicine (2010 book) How common is plagiarism in anesthesia papers? “Approximately 1 in 10 submissions” Bitterness receptors in the lungs. Bitter substances cause the lungs to open. Thanks to Oskar Pearson.
Todd Becker pointed me to this post which is negative about the notion that cold showers raise mood (“empty science”) but you can ignore the negativity and go to the comment that gives a long list of studies that support the idea. Todd has blogged about his use of cold showers. Todd calls this hormesis. …
From an excellent Atlantic article about John Ioannidis, who has published several papers saying that medical research is far less reliable than you might think: A different oak tree at the site provides visitors with a chance to try their own hands at extracting a prophecy. “I [bring] all the researchers who visit me here, …