Comments on: Science & Medicine Links for August

By: Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:50:21 +0000

According to Wikipedia, Paul Kern, Al Herpin, and Thai Ngoc did not or do not sleep.

By: BenSix

BenSix — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 23:25:11 +0000

Still doesn’t really explain why some people can go without sleep completely, but maybe that’s why they brought in the “local sleep” points.

No sleep at all? Is that possible, for more than a short while? It was, at the least, the subject of one of my favourite stories by Haruki Murakami.

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By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 23:05:54 +0000

Did you read the article I linked to?

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:55:29 +0000

Scientist: Hmm, why do some people get fat and some people don’t?

Me: Could it have to do with their family and how they take after them?

Scientist: Don’t be silly! We need to do a study!

*does study, comes back*

Scientist: Hey, guess what? If your blood family are fat, chances are you’ll be fat too, even if you’re adopted by thin people!

Me: Oh, I am so surprised. Oh, I would never have guessed. Oh, whatever would we do without you guys to tell us that water is wet and fire burns?

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By: Elissa

Elissa — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 20:17:14 +0000

Have you read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma? Lots of hair-curlingly awful stuff to put you off ever trusting any drug study again.

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By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 19:28:58 +0000

Beware of hindsight bias. Sure you could’ve predicted that now that you have the data, but could you really have if you didn’t?

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 17:23:39 +0000

That’s real Department of the Bleedin’ Obvious stuff as far as I’m concerned; goodness, genetics might have a role in whether you tend to pack on the pudge or not? I never would have suspected that, from my family where two of us take after my father’s side of the family (pudgy) and two of us take after my mother’s side of the family (not pudgy) and we were all reared by the same two parents eating the same food.

Also, in that fibromyalgia article, why is the tone very strongly “if it’s ‘all in your head’, it’s not really real”? Even an imaginary pain hurts, and it’s not much good telling someone “We can’t find a reason why you should have a pain from the blood test or the x-ray, so you don’t really have a pain, you only think you have a pain.” Believe me, that pain hurts just as much as if you had a ‘rational biological basis’. Three years ago I got a severe bout of abdominal pain (to the point where I hauled myself into the ER of the regional hospital at 4 o’clock in the morning on Good Friday) which had been diagnosed as “probably urinary tract infection” (it wasn’t), “maybe gallbladder” (no), “could be your appendix” (not that either) and ended up being “Well, since you’re female, it could be any number of things”. It went away of its own accord and I’ve never had an explanation for why it happened, what it was, or why it stopped – but believe me, at 3 a.m. I was seriously considering slicing my side open with the sharp steak knife to relieve the pressure because it couldn’t hurt any worse than it already did, and surely I wouldn’t bleed thatmuch. I didn’t, but it really was a close-run thing.

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By: Sniffnoy

Sniffnoy — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:39:51 +0000

(Also, The Gripping Hand is not really much worth reading. Very much just obligatory sequel.)

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By: Sniffnoy

Sniffnoy — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:38:25 +0000

As I learned it, “on the gripping” hand is for the third consideration that renders the first two irrelevant, not just for any third consideration.

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By: nyan_sandwich

nyan_sandwich — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:10:36 +0000

>genetic obesity

Not particularly surprising, except for the regional variation. Did all the fat ancestors get shipped to america? Or am I in error in thinking stereotypes hold up?

Also, if that’s an adoption study, could the biological heritability be epigenetic? I am not a biologist, but that would seem to explain why populations with otherwise similar genetic heritage have differences in apparently heritable obesity, right?

>On the mutant third hand,

The term is “on the gripping hand”. Did you neglect to read Niven, or are you assuming we didn’t?

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