Out, Damned Spots!

Out , damned spot : Can the “ Macbeth Effect ” be replicated ? Brian

In a much-publicized paper, Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) reported evidence that feelings of moral cleanliness are grounded in feelings of physical cleanliness: a threat to people’s moral purity leads them to seek, literally, to cleanse themselves. In an attempt to replicate and build upon these findings, we conducted a pilot study in which we unexpectedly failed to replicate the original result...

Out, damned dot: studies of the NADPH oxidase in atherosclerosis.

There has been growing interest in oxidation reactions in atherogenesis, largely because oxidative modification of lipoproteins is critical for lesion formation. Oxidative events other than lipid modification are likely also important in atherogenesis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) modulate gene transcription, affect tyrosine phosphorylation, cause DNA damage, and modulate activity of matrix me...

Lies, damned lies and……….

The well-known quotation “There are lies, damned lies and statistics” suggests that statistics doesn’t have the greatest of reputations. Why is this? Certainly, statistics can be used to mislead, but logically “lies, damned lies and statistics” reflects high levels of statistical misunderstanding rather than indicating that statistics are inherently ‘bad’. In Bad Science, Ben Goldacre highlight...

Publish or be damned.

Scoop and be damned

Both journals and journalism are well served by the embargo system. Newspaper offices receive advance copies of major journals, and/or press releases highlighting key papers, embargoed so that their contents cannot be disclosed before publication day. Journalists then have time to write stories to appear simultaneously. No-one has an unfair advantage. And journals gain more publicity than they ...