Perspective: Animal research in the Senate spotlight

Associate Professor James Bourne is a Monash researcher working with non human primates. He made an excellent presentation defending the use of NHPs to the recent Senate committee hearing on a proposed amendment by Senator Rhiannon, to ban the import of NHPs for medical research. This has profound implications for NHP research, and more generally, for all animal researchers to be upfront and informative to the tax paying public about the animal based work and its necessity for understanding how our bodies do and don't work.

See the submissions page for details of the issue and no.12 submission for James Bourne's written submission to the committee. You can follow James Bourne on Twitter at https://twitter.com/neurdboy.

Odd spot: Multitasking is a myth - neuroscientists explain why

US TV program 'Today' asked two top neuroscientists at MIT, Earl Miller and Bob Desimone the following questions. See the article for Earl's answers, and the video for both scientists' explanations.

• Does using devices change how the brain functions?
• Why do devices so easily distract people?
• Why is multitasking a problem?
• Why do we think we are better at multitasking than we really are?
• What are some ways to combat digital distractions?

"Focus on one thing at a time. If I am writing a paper and working and I am checking my email every minute, I am incurring a switch cost every minute." Earl Miller.

Link: www.today.com/health/multitasking-doesn-t-work-why-focus-isn-t-just-hocus-t69276

Odd spot: When data gets creepy - the secrets we don’t realise we’re giving away

Ben Goldacre says that we all worry about digital spies stealing our data – and now even the things we thought we were happy to share are being used in ways we don’t like.

Why aren’t we making more of a fuss? Because not really understanding the technology, we have few sound intuitions into what is safe and what is flimsy when it comes to securing our digital lives – let alone what is ethical and what is creepy. See Ben Goldacre's entire essay.

See also

• The Roast ABC TV 2 July 2014 critique of Facebook's ethics violations, at timepoint 7.30.
• Did Facebook's experiment violate ethics? edition.cnn.com/2014/07/02/opinion/klitzman-facebook-experiment/

Odd spot: Remind me again, what is thalidomide?

Phocomelia was a common birth defect
from taking thalidomide during pregnancy

The Conversation is running a series on thalidomide – the history of the tragedy, its long-term impacts and the fight for justice. In this story, medical historian Arthur Daemmrich sets the scene of the mid-20th century drug landscape and explains how thalidomide was marketed, used, and withdrawn after causing thousands of birth defects.

Chennai flooding information crowd sourced for real time data

Chennai's crowd sourced map of flooded streets. A live map has been launched to help people in the city. Whoever will navigate through the map, will be able to see a clear picture of the current situation and will be able to avoid waterlogged areas and roads. This map of Chennai is a crowdfunded effort to keep people updated about the waterlogged areas in the city.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/india/chennai-floods-follow-this-live-map-to-avoid-waterlogged-areas-1944872.html

Odd spot: Chris Smith asks, 'Big data, big deal?"

Dr Chris Smith, of
'Naked Scientists' fame

More data has been produced in the last five years than in all of human history put together before then. But what’s driving this big data revelation? Dr Chris Smith explains in the Friday 20 November 2015 10:05PM broadcast of RN's "The Naked Scientists" program.
Link: www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/nakedscientists/new-document/6950540

Odd spot: How frightening is it when Dr Google is in charge?

Wizard of Id cartoon published in The Age 11 Nov 2015.

Odd spot: Ben Goldacre, author of 'Bad Science', on randomisation

Cartoon: xkcd comic

“Randomisation is not a new idea. It was first proposed in the seventeenth century by John Baptista van Helmont, a Belgian radical who challenged the academics of his day to test their treatments like blood-letting and purging (based on ‘theory’) against his own, which he said were based more on clinical experience: ‘Let us take out of the hospitals, out of the Camps, or from elsewhere, two hundred, or five hundred poor People, that have Fevers, Pleurisies, etc. Let us divide them into half, let us cast lots, that one half of them may fall to my share, and the other to yours … We shall see how many funerals both of us shall have.” 
― Ben Goldacre, Bad Science

Odd Spot: Daniel Levitin: "The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in an Age of Information Overload"

Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist who has published a book called "The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in an Age of Information Overload". His talk to Google employees was video recorded & uploaded to Youtube. He elaborates on three themes, one singularly important, which is that there is no such thing as multitasking - the brain can only do one thing at a time. Another is that decisions, even the most trivial, take energy, i.e. use glucose. So avoid trivial decision making or leave it to the afternoon when you're tired e.g. what email to look at when.
Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR1TNEHRY-U

Odd spot: The great chocolate hoax

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

A science journalist, John Bohannen, with a PhD in the molecular biology of bacteria helped demonstrate just how easy it is to turn bad science into the big headlines behind diet fads - gonzo style. The hoax was completely (sadly) successful, in revealing the corruption of the diet research-media complex - corrupted because journalists rarely understand scientific method, they are time pressured into churning out content and they feature content known to be of interest to the public, not necessarily what is in the public interest.

Odd spot: Epidemiologist and doctor Ben Goldacre gives a TED talk on Bad Science

Dr Ben Goldacre giving his TED talk

Every day there are news reports of new health advice, but how can you know if they're right? Doctor and epidemiologist Ben Goldacre shows us, at high speed, the ways evidence can be distorted, from the blindingly obvious nutrition claims to the very subtle tricks of the pharmaceutical industry.

www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science

Odd spot: Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize

Richard J. Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,  writes, "It is remarkable how many students, young faculty, and even senior faculty hanker after a Nobel Prize. Somehow, they think that it is possible to structure their scientific careers so that the culmination will bring this much sought-after honor. Some even think that as a Nobel laureate myself, I may have the key to success—some secrets that I can share and so greatly improve their odds of success. Unfortunately, I must begin by disappointing everyone. There is only one path that should be followed. It is summed up in Rule 1, but some of the other Rules may prove helpful—or if not helpful, then at least amusing."

Reference: journals.plos.org/ploscollections/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004084

Odd spot: The cow in the room - an unpalatable truth about the main global warming driver

"Livestock production is responsible for 51% of global greenhouse emissions ... It's time to get serious about changing your diet."
+COWSPIRACY: the sustainability secret
One Green Planet blog link
If animal production is the biggest driver of greenhouse gas production, then one simple action of reducing our meat consumption will not only reduce the gas emission, but free up land for planting trees,  i.e. creating a carbon sink and taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

Odd spot: BMI Visualiser - scary!

This German site allows you to both calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) and visualize your 3D body shape. The rendering of the topography is pretty ugly but the idea is interesting, and will approximately answer these questions:

• How is BMI related to body shape?
• What would I look like if I lost or gained weight?

http://bmijs.is.tuebingen.mpg.de/