On 20 Mar 2009 at 10:30, Mike Palij wrote: > A few points on the messages below: > > (1) Stephen Black must have a definition of "goodies" that > I am unfamiliar with (then again, it's been years since I was an > undergraduate and perhaps my sense of humor has changed > over time). Were these studies identified because they're > kind of like the scientific equivalent of fart jokes? Or to > provide examples for teaching moments?
I do feel sorry for those who have HDD (humour-deficient disorder). They miss so much of the enjoyment of life. I admit that I enjoy silly posts to this list. I certainly try to contribute them myself. I checked out early from that other psychology discussion list, finding its relevance police guarding the purity of the list tiresome, not to mention pompous and self-important. It's much more fun (and edifying, too) over here, although I appreciate that Mike may not understand the concept of "fun", seeing his confusion over "goodies". However, there is a long tradition of scientists enjoying a good laugh. The respected popular science magazine _New Scientist_ is well represented in this category, and that is where the two lists I posted came from. They also run a weekly feature, available on-line, called "Feedback", which dependably produces brilliant bits of humour (check it out at http://www.newscientist.com/topic/feedback ). On this side of the Atlantic, we have the equally wonderful Ig Nobel awards, sometimes with the participation of real Nobel Prize winners. Marc Abrahams, as we know, runs this along with his famous journal Annals of Improbable Research, both poking fun at science (http://improbable.com/category/ig-nobel/). On a few occasions, I've been happy to share in this merry-making, based on something I said on TIPS (e.g.http://tinyurl.com/c36dqa, http://tinyurl.com/ck8vbk). Some famous scientists even fool around in publications. One of the better stories goes back to this weighty 1948 paper: Alpher, R. A., H. Bethe and G. Gamow. "The Origin of Chemical Elements," Physical Review, 73, Issue 7, (1948), 803-804. Gamow, a respected physicist, prepared this paper with his grad student Alpher. He then invited the even more eminent physicist Hans Bethe to join the paper just so that the names of the authors would then be alpha, beta, gamma. That was the only reason he did it, Mike. For fun. In the holy of holies of physics, _Physical Review_. Unfortunately, Alpher didn't see the joke either. (See the story in Wiki). > (2) It may just be me but I think that Stephen could have > provided some useful commentary on the stories that he > referred to Well, gee, I did. I noted that the story of the elephant on acid revealed an elephantine fallacy over the proper way to calculate drug dosage. I pointed out that other stories provided good reasons why we have IRBs today. And I felt it wasn't necessary to bother pointing out that a number of the stories showed the great dedication of researchers in pursuit of evidence for their ideas, however compromised their good sense and good taste (literally) was in the process. But I again admit I also posted merely because the lists were funny. I felt confident that others would find further meaning in them. And they did. Mike, for example, pointed out the decapitating rats study confirmed Milgram on obedience; he discussed the finding based on self- experimentation by Marshall on gastric ulcers. (This is, in fact, on _New Scientist's_ list of self-experimenting researchers: see "Barry Marshall's bad breath"). Jim Clark contributed on Goldberger's investigation of pellagra, with further insights from Mike. So I think the list got its money's worth from the post, even if reading it did carry the risk of being amused (as Mike would think of it) and of being grossed out. > > So, maybe I need a "goodies" update. On not. Perhaps you need a transgenic treatment for HDD--a transfer of humour genes. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
