Around Academia

Around Academia

The first in a roundup series that I've decided to call "Around Academia."

Is 'self-care' just another way of policing people's thoughts, by compelling them to feel happy? Or might it be a cynical marketing ploy to sell products? https://www.coyneoftherealm.com/blogs/news/the-tyranny-of-self-care-this-year-s-model-of-compulsive-happiness

Are early-career female researchers getting due credit for their work? https://www.coyneoftherealm.com/blogs/news/rising-early-career-female-academics-and-second-to-last-authorship

• Some advice, whether the assertion linked above is true or not: Don't be a jerk. Give people due credit!

On a related note: should we publish fewer papers? Nelson, Simmons, and Simonsohn make a compelling case: http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/DPlab/papers/publishedPapers/Simmons_2013_Lets%20Publish%20Fewer%20Papers.pdf

• I can't resist including this quote from page 292: "Under the current system, researchers are heavily rewarded for having new and exciting ideas and only vaguely rewarded for being accurate. Researchers are trained to defeat the review process and conquer the publisher. Uncovering a new and true insight is quite helpful in that process, but it is hardly necessary."
  
  Yikes. An savage indictment of the current state of the publication process (rather than in its theoretical/ideal form)!

Are yoga and mindfulness simply fads with more hype than substance? http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2017/07/19/creating-illusions-of-wondrous-effects-of-yoga-and-meditation-on-health-a-skeptic-exposes-tricks/

When Google Is Wrong (!)

Picture this scenario:

 

Royalty-free picture: https://pixabay.com/en/workplace-team-business-meeting-1245776/

You're talking with a group of people, when somebody says, "I crossed the Mississippi River a couple weeks ago. You know, I was expecting it to be huge and impressive, right? But it really wasn't even that wide—it only took a minute to cross the old iron bridge, and I was on land again. Isn't the Mississippi supposed to be the third-longest river in the world?"

"Wait, I thought it was the fourth-longest."

"I'm pretty sure I learned that it was third-longest."

"Ok, let's look it up. How long is the Mississippi, anyway?"

"How do you spell 'Mississippi' again?..."

And people pull out their phones and Google "Mississippi river length." But maybe you shouldn't be so quick to rely on Google for your facts!

_________________

When Science Is Wrong

Don't Drink the Kool-Aid!

Unfortunately, not every claim by a scientist is true:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/a-dig-through-old-files-reminds-me-why-ie28099m-so-critical-of-science/