Whiplash injury: Why are we Achieving so Little?

Why are we doing so little clinical research? Part 2: Why clinical research is neglected.

Family medicine is a clinical discipline. So why are so few family physicians doing clinical research? Certainly there are notable exceptions to that generalization. But if you look at our publication record as a whole, clinical descriptive research is only a small part. Yet it is an important issue, with consequences for our place in medical schools. In this editorial, I want to address this i...

Heritability of Nectar Traits: Why Do We Know So Little?

Although floral and extrafloral nectar traits are important for plant reproduction and defense, we know little about their genetic basis. Only a handful of studies have quantified heritable variation for nectar traits, primarily in controlled environments that minimize environmental variation. Most such studies have reported strong genetic influences, with heritabilities often .0.35. However, b...

XXXL: why are we so fat?

ne of the most comprehensive data sets available about Americans—how tall they are, when they last visited a dentist, what sort of cereal they eat for breakfast, whether they have to pee during the night, and, if so, how often—comes from a series of studies conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants are chosen at random, interviewed at length, and subjecte...

Why Do Nations Trade ( So Little ) ?

There isn't nearly as much trade as standard models suggest there should be. Formal trade barriers and transport costs are too low to account for the difference. The pattern of missing trade has interesting variation across country pairs. These clues suggest the need for theoretical and eventually structural empirical work on the missing transactions costs. This paper reviews recent empirical f...

Systematic reviews in epidemiology: why are we so far behind?