’80s Creep – Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme

Everyone identifies the 1980s as the decade before the discovery of irony. I grew up in the ’80s and will testify that they were frighteningly sincere. What is forgotten when we look at the ’80s is that social trends do not care for arbitrary time units. There was a lot of “’80s” in the ’90s* – a point proven by the release in 1990 of Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme. In Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, Mother Goose goes missing and her son must embark on a musical adventure to find her before bad things happen. What makes Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme ’80s sincere is the star level at the time of the singing nursery rhyme characters he encounters on his way. Harry Anderson (Night Court) is Peter Piper. Cyndi Lauper is the Mary who had a little lamb. Little Richard (co-inventor of rock ‘n’ roll) is a very merry Old King Cole. ZZ Top are the Three Men in a Tub. The list goes on.

Today, only Sesame Street has that kind of pull.

*Nirvana wasn’t even a thing until 1991 when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from Nevermind broke big for them.

**This came up because my daughter’s dance class appears to be using one of the songs from Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, which, to my undying shame, I recognized and may have sung along too.

 

ENCODE is devouring the rest of biomedical science

A new NIH RFA:

PsychENCODE: Identification and Characterization of Non-coding Functional Elements in the Brain, and their Role in the Development of Mental Disorders (R01)

The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, by systematically cataloging transcribed regions, transcription factor binding sites, and chromatin structure, has recently found that a larger fraction of the human genome may be functional than was previously appreciated. However, our understanding of the role of these functional genomic elements in neurodevelopment and mental disorders is at an early stage. This funding opportunity will support studies that identify non-coding functional genomic elements and elucidate their role in the etiology of mental disorders.

Suddenly, the ENOCDE model is now the way to do science. It’s hard to disagree with Dan Graur on what the consequences are: Continue reading “ENCODE is devouring the rest of biomedical science”

Great scientists don’t need math

So says E.O. Wilson in the Wall Street Journal.

But don’t just read the headline – be sure to catch the nuance in Wilson’s piece. He’s saying don’t let fear of math drive you from science, because you don’t need straight A’s through four semesters of calculus to be a good scientist.

I don’t quite agree with Wilson when he says you can always find a mathematician as a collaborator to handle the math you need. A mathematically illiterate biologist working with a biologically illiterate mathematician is usually not a fruitful combination. But good scientists pick up the necessary mental toolkit as it’s needed, including mathematical and statistical knowledge (as long as they’re willing to put some serious effort into gaining that knowledge, as opposed to, say, figuring out how to mindlessly apply t-tests).

Sean Eddy calls this approach “ante-disciplinary science”: Continue reading “Great scientists don’t need math”

Knit frog guts

“Knitting in Biology 101” by Emily Stoneking

Emily Stoneking is not only the name of my favorite Jarl from Skyrim, but also knits dissected frogs. You read all of that right.

Cast your eyes to port on that wonderment. Frog dissections have never been so adorable.

According to the description:

3 out of 4 biologists agree: Knitting in Biology 101 is the cutest biology project, ever!

What I want to know is who is that fourth broken soul? Actually, I know who it is. I went to grad school with him. Yeah, I’m talking about you.

 

Home field intimidation

According to a paper from Marshall Jones of Penn State in Psychology of Sport and Exercise (you can read it for only $31.50), home field advantage is far more prevalent in subjectively judged, independent sports, like diving and gymnastics, than in objectively judged sports, like sprinting and the biathlon.

Subjectively evaluated sports such as diving, gymnastics, or figure skating usually show sizable and significant home advantages. Otherwise, occasional findings have been reported but they are not consistent within a sport, are generally weak, and often statistically unreliable. – Marshall Jones

This dovetails nicely with the home field advantage phenomena reported by L Jon Wertheim and Tobias Moskowitz in Scorecasting for team sports like baseball, basketball, and association football (aka, soccer) on points of subjective judgments (eg, strike zone, certain fouls, and extra time, respectively).

Taking together, this suggests that home field advantage is a result of the crowd intimidating the officials, not the crowd boosting the morale of the home team.