SGU Episode 332

Introduction
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

This Day in Skepticism

 * November 22, 1963: JFK Assassinated: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68717.html http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/national-geographic-channel/shows/explorer-1/ngc-restored-jfk-footage.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/opinion/the-umbrella-man.html?_r=1

Power Balance Bankruptcy

 * http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/power-balance-files-for-bankruptcy/

FTL Neutrinos

 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15830844 and http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/11/neutrino_experiment_affirms_fa.html

Does Water Prevent Dehydration

 * http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/does-drinking-water-prevent-dehydration/

Plate Color and Food Taste

 * http://www.livescience.com/17046-plate-color-flavor-psychology.html

Who's That Noisy

 * Answer to last week: Law & Order

Question #1: SILLY Bias in Scientific Reviews
"Ha ha! A subsequent review article perhaps poking fun at those believing in the BMJ Christmas articles?... Christopher Morello ************* From the PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20018155 Ugeskr Laeger. 2009 Dec 14;171(51):3784-9. [A new scientific source of bias: SILLY bias. Analysis of citations of BMJ's Christmas articles]. [Article in Danish] Felding UA, Jørgensen KJ, Hróbjartsson A. Det Nordiske Cochrane Center, Rigshospitalet, København Ø. ah@cochrane.dk Abstract We analysed the scientific impact of systematic reviews and randomised trials published in the BMJ Christmas issues 1997-2006. The articles were mostly interpreted correctly as humorous, but the humorous dimension was overlooked with surprising ease. The result from one ironic-absurd trial on the effect of retroactive remote intercessory prayer for patients already dead or dismissed was taken at face value in 12/36 of the citing articles, and mortality data was unconditionally included in three systematic reviews. Thus, we document a new type of bias in medical research: Serious Idiopathic Loss of Ludic ironY (SILLY) bias, both in citation practices and in metaanalyses."

Science or Fiction
Item #1: A new study shows that people avoid information about topics about which they are ignorant and yet deem important. Item #2: Researchers have identified a protein that, when taken as daily supplement, almost triples cardiovascular and muscle endurance in human clinical trials. Item #3: New research finds that walking through a doorway impairs short term memory.

Skeptical Quote of the Week
"'At every croasroads on the road that leads to the future, tradition has placed against us ten thousand men to guard the past.' - Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck"