Popular Science magazine is running a series of items on scientific research projects that seem fairly pointless. They report on experiments that have proven that unathletic kids are unpopular; that rock musicians tend to die young; and that people catch the flu in winter.
Why bother? Two reasons. First, as Mark Twain is supposed to have said, “common sense is neither.” A lot of the things we think we know turn out not to be true. Only by checking them out do we really know what’s what.
Second, confirming a phenomenon exists is the first step toward understanding it. If we want to combat the flu, for instance, it helps to know that, yes, it really does strike more often during a particular time of the year. This may be a clue to how the disease spreads, and how we might be able to stop it.
Sometimes, having an amazing grasp of the obvious can be a good thing!
Tags : The Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time. Need I say more? You have to check it out for yourself...
Believe it or not, US regulators are very concerned that everybody get a chance to participate in science research. Often, when applying for a grant, scientists have to give information about what populations will be included.
The government should then like the recent explosion of Web-based experiments. Experiments on the Internet are available to anyone with an Internet connection, which is already the considerable majority of Americans of a wide range of ethnicities.
I recently started a new web-based research lab, the Cognition and Language Laboratory. The experiments typically run about 5 minutes. Right now there are experiments on mother-child speech, language processing, visual cognition and birth order effects on personality. I really appreciate your participation.
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