![\"KLP200x286\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2016\/07\/KLP200x286.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0(1) Potatoes Are Responsible For Human Mortality*\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n![\"evilpotato\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2017\/06\/evilpotato-300x158.png\")
<\/a><\/h4>\nBACKGROUND:<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile perusing my twitter feed, I came across this irresistible caption and article preview:<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those people hoping to live forever better avoid chips\u201d<\/strong>
\n(Courtesy of @AdamRutherford<\/a> \u2013 if anyone wants a regular supply of interesting and enjoyable tweets).<\/p>\n![\"eatchips\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2017\/06\/eatchips-300x202.png\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nTHE PART THAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nWell \u2013 It\u2019s not often that the certainty of eventual death is questioned. This title seems to suggest not only is it questionable \u2013 it is preventable! All it might take is choosing the baked potato side over chips next time you order that steak. I got a little bit excited at the possibility that you could join the ranks of Logan, the elves from LOTR and Dorian Gray (although, \u201cThe Potato Sides of Dorian Gray\u201d isn\u2019t really as catchy). It turns out that more specifically\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch\u00a0published in the\u00a0American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>has\u00a0found\u00a0that people who eat chips – or any other similar fried potato product – \u00a0two or more times each week\u00a0have twice the chance of dying\u00a0compared to those who don’t eat any<\/span>.\u201d (read the full article here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWell that settles it. If I just keep my chip habit down to under two times a week \u2013 I might be around for an awful long time. Huh indeed.<\/p>\n
WHAT I\u2019VE LEARNED<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nObviously, this headline really isn\u2019t suggesting that people wouldn\u2019t die at all if it weren\u2019t for the humble potato chip. It\u2019s actually referencing this study<\/a>,\u00a0that followed 4440 people over 8 years, and found that people who ate fried potatoes 2 or more times a week were 3 times more likely to die during that eight-year period. <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0This was based on 236 deaths that occurred in the cohort during that time.<\/p>\nThis funny example got me reflecting on a few things. A lot of our information comes from bite size chunks of information \u2013 we are used to seeing headlines, and 140 character streams of information. Sometimes it is difficult to fit a lot of key information into short, bite sized pieces. As a reader\/consumer of this information \u2013 context (the bigger picture) matters. It\u2019s easy to remember that when you see a headline as striking as this one. It\u2019s immediately clear that the title\u2019s face reading and it\u2019s intended\/actual meaning are completely different beasts. It\u2019s probably easier to neglect the bigger picture when the attention-grabbing title is more in line with our prior expectations.<\/p>\n
Writing isn\u2019t an easy business either. Especially short form writing \u2013 trying to fit a nuanced and complex narrative into a sentence or less is a real skill (I\u2019m still working on that one). Headlines like this get me jotting little mental notes to aim for clarity and precision in my writing. A lot of meaning can be taken from a really small amount of text and trying to be clear and understandable is important (excuse me while I go and write that on a blackboard 100 times).<\/p>\n
Learning point 1:<\/strong> context matters.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nLearning point \u00a02: <\/strong>work on being more precise and clear in my writing.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n(2) When I Want To Increase My Sociability By 200%, I Can Lure A Second Person To My Office*\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n(I have @KarenHodgePodge<\/a> to thank for bringing this one to my attention.)<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/em>BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile sitting chatting about misleading headlines, a friend of mine shared the Nature valley ad below:<\/p>\n
![\"naturevalley\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2017\/06\/naturevalley-225x300.png\")
<\/a>WHAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere is a lot going on here. First \u2013 you must assume that the suggestion is that they have doubled the quantity of the bars in a pack (so they used to have one delicious bar in a pack then decided to add a second bar of deliciousness) rather than having started off selling a (probably deliciously fragrant) empty wrapper.<\/p>\n
Once I had satisfied myself that this was true, I had a jarring \u2018huh\u2019 moment where questioned some of my understanding of percent increases (the one where you look at the increase in quantity from some starting point \u2013 in this case the increase from 1 bar to 2 bars. So \u2013 the one where you add 100% of a second bar to the existing bar. Or, increase the bars by\u2026 100%).<\/p>\n
WHAT I LEARNED<\/strong><\/p>\nWell \u2013 there must be some underlying reason behind this poor (erm \u2013 wrong?) use of numbers in a widely public forum. Depending on how cynical you\u2019re feeling you might take one of the following two points away from this experience:<\/p>\n
Learning point 1: <\/strong>There\u2019s a surprising lack of editing\/checking in paper advertising<\/span><\/p>\nor alternatively:<\/p>\n
Learning point 1: <\/strong>Style trumps substance in the world of paper advertising.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nOn a less funny note \u2013 it was also a reminder of how numbers can be misused and misleading. And indeed how misused and misleading numbers can be easily disguised. Here, it\u2019s pretty amusing. Sometimes it can be a lot more problematic<\/p>\n
Learning point2: <\/strong>Numbers used for public promotion can be misleading (and just plain wrong!)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nMoral of this story:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be fooled \u2013 Nature Valley have only increased their deliciousness by 100%!<\/p>\n
(3) I Work In The \u2018Funest Place Ever\u2019.<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n![\"doingthescience\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2017\/06\/doingthescience-264x300.png\")
<\/a> ![\"funestplace\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/166\/files\/2017\/06\/funestplace-296x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\nLast Friday, instead of business as usual (straight to the desk, with the occasional walk as far as the kettle), we hosted an MRC science festival at the SGDP. From 10am till 4pm, there was a busy stream of school kids, their teachers and parents, and anyone else from around the area who fancied seeing a little bit of science in action. A huge range of research that we do at the centre was showcased in some really fun and interactive ways.<\/p>\n
Everyone got to play with mobile EEG (electroencephalogram \u2013 using electrodes to detect electrical activity in your brain!) which enabled you to use the signal measured from your brain to levitate a ball in a tube \u2013 or even race a car around a track!<\/p>\n
There was a stall where you could extract DNA from strawberries!<\/p>\n
You could learn about how the combined influence of many different genes that you inherit from your mum and dad, and environmental factors can contribute to traits, and about how we can understand a lot about heritability by comparing how similar identical twins are compared to non-identical twins (we had a lot of twins too!)<\/p>\n
Kids and adults alike took part in some classic experimental psychology tasks and got to explore and understand why they were used and what they were trying to help us understand (Like\u2026how we learn about things that might make us anxious, or less anxious anyone?).<\/p>\n
There was poetry, model building and learning about the brain and its structures and functions \u2013 and I could keep going on (but I\u2019ll try leave a little mystery for the next one\u2026).<\/p>\n
WHAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s easy to forget how much innovation and discovery are happening in so many different fields all around us. To see such a breadth of research, and all communicated in such a fun, interactive and interesting way was a wonderful reminder of how lucky we are to spend all day \u2018doing the science\u2019.<\/p>\n
WHAT I LEARNED<\/strong><\/p>\nI suppose this shouldn\u2019t really count as surprising; but it is easy to forget the big picture of what you, and people around you, are doing when you\u2019re usually so heavily involved in the minutiae.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t just<\/em><\/strong> an excuse to write about a really fun, interesting day. It was also a day that was slightly out of the ordinary \u2013 that took some weeks of thinking about what we really do, and how to communicate that effectively, to anyone.<\/p>\nLearning point 1: <\/strong>It\u2019s important (and enjoyable \u2013 though not always easy) to be able to talk about your work in an approachable, understandable way.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nLearning point 2: <\/strong>I am very lucky to get to work in a centre surrounded by such a breadth of interesting and important reasearch.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/h4>\nBACKGROUND:<\/strong><\/p>\n While perusing my twitter feed, I came across this irresistible caption and article preview:<\/p>\n \u201cAll those people hoping to live forever better avoid chips\u201d<\/strong> THE PART THAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Well \u2013 It\u2019s not often that the certainty of eventual death is questioned. This title seems to suggest not only is it questionable \u2013 it is preventable! All it might take is choosing the baked potato side over chips next time you order that steak. I got a little bit excited at the possibility that you could join the ranks of Logan, the elves from LOTR and Dorian Gray (although, \u201cThe Potato Sides of Dorian Gray\u201d isn\u2019t really as catchy). It turns out that more specifically\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cResearch\u00a0published in the\u00a0American Journal of Clinical Nutrition<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>has\u00a0found\u00a0that people who eat chips – or any other similar fried potato product – \u00a0two or more times each week\u00a0have twice the chance of dying\u00a0compared to those who don’t eat any<\/span>.\u201d (read the full article here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Well that settles it. If I just keep my chip habit down to under two times a week \u2013 I might be around for an awful long time. Huh indeed.<\/p>\n WHAT I\u2019VE LEARNED<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Obviously, this headline really isn\u2019t suggesting that people wouldn\u2019t die at all if it weren\u2019t for the humble potato chip. It\u2019s actually referencing this study<\/a>,\u00a0that followed 4440 people over 8 years, and found that people who ate fried potatoes 2 or more times a week were 3 times more likely to die during that eight-year period. <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0This was based on 236 deaths that occurred in the cohort during that time.<\/p>\n This funny example got me reflecting on a few things. A lot of our information comes from bite size chunks of information \u2013 we are used to seeing headlines, and 140 character streams of information. Sometimes it is difficult to fit a lot of key information into short, bite sized pieces. As a reader\/consumer of this information \u2013 context (the bigger picture) matters. It\u2019s easy to remember that when you see a headline as striking as this one. It\u2019s immediately clear that the title\u2019s face reading and it\u2019s intended\/actual meaning are completely different beasts. It\u2019s probably easier to neglect the bigger picture when the attention-grabbing title is more in line with our prior expectations.<\/p>\n Writing isn\u2019t an easy business either. Especially short form writing \u2013 trying to fit a nuanced and complex narrative into a sentence or less is a real skill (I\u2019m still working on that one). Headlines like this get me jotting little mental notes to aim for clarity and precision in my writing. A lot of meaning can be taken from a really small amount of text and trying to be clear and understandable is important (excuse me while I go and write that on a blackboard 100 times).<\/p>\n Learning point 1:<\/strong> context matters.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Learning point \u00a02: <\/strong>work on being more precise and clear in my writing.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n (I have @KarenHodgePodge<\/a> to thank for bringing this one to my attention.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n While sitting chatting about misleading headlines, a friend of mine shared the Nature valley ad below:<\/p>\n There is a lot going on here. First \u2013 you must assume that the suggestion is that they have doubled the quantity of the bars in a pack (so they used to have one delicious bar in a pack then decided to add a second bar of deliciousness) rather than having started off selling a (probably deliciously fragrant) empty wrapper.<\/p>\n Once I had satisfied myself that this was true, I had a jarring \u2018huh\u2019 moment where questioned some of my understanding of percent increases (the one where you look at the increase in quantity from some starting point \u2013 in this case the increase from 1 bar to 2 bars. So \u2013 the one where you add 100% of a second bar to the existing bar. Or, increase the bars by\u2026 100%).<\/p>\n WHAT I LEARNED<\/strong><\/p>\n Well \u2013 there must be some underlying reason behind this poor (erm \u2013 wrong?) use of numbers in a widely public forum. Depending on how cynical you\u2019re feeling you might take one of the following two points away from this experience:<\/p>\n Learning point 1: <\/strong>There\u2019s a surprising lack of editing\/checking in paper advertising<\/span><\/p>\n or alternatively:<\/p>\n Learning point 1: <\/strong>Style trumps substance in the world of paper advertising.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n On a less funny note \u2013 it was also a reminder of how numbers can be misused and misleading. And indeed how misused and misleading numbers can be easily disguised. Here, it\u2019s pretty amusing. Sometimes it can be a lot more problematic<\/p>\n Learning point2: <\/strong>Numbers used for public promotion can be misleading (and just plain wrong!)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Moral of this story:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be fooled \u2013 Nature Valley have only increased their deliciousness by 100%!<\/p>\n BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n Last Friday, instead of business as usual (straight to the desk, with the occasional walk as far as the kettle), we hosted an MRC science festival at the SGDP. From 10am till 4pm, there was a busy stream of school kids, their teachers and parents, and anyone else from around the area who fancied seeing a little bit of science in action. A huge range of research that we do at the centre was showcased in some really fun and interactive ways.<\/p>\n Everyone got to play with mobile EEG (electroencephalogram \u2013 using electrodes to detect electrical activity in your brain!) which enabled you to use the signal measured from your brain to levitate a ball in a tube \u2013 or even race a car around a track!<\/p>\n There was a stall where you could extract DNA from strawberries!<\/p>\n You could learn about how the combined influence of many different genes that you inherit from your mum and dad, and environmental factors can contribute to traits, and about how we can understand a lot about heritability by comparing how similar identical twins are compared to non-identical twins (we had a lot of twins too!)<\/p>\n Kids and adults alike took part in some classic experimental psychology tasks and got to explore and understand why they were used and what they were trying to help us understand (Like\u2026how we learn about things that might make us anxious, or less anxious anyone?).<\/p>\n There was poetry, model building and learning about the brain and its structures and functions \u2013 and I could keep going on (but I\u2019ll try leave a little mystery for the next one\u2026).<\/p>\n WHAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to forget how much innovation and discovery are happening in so many different fields all around us. To see such a breadth of research, and all communicated in such a fun, interactive and interesting way was a wonderful reminder of how lucky we are to spend all day \u2018doing the science\u2019.<\/p>\n WHAT I LEARNED<\/strong><\/p>\n I suppose this shouldn\u2019t really count as surprising; but it is easy to forget the big picture of what you, and people around you, are doing when you\u2019re usually so heavily involved in the minutiae.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t just<\/em><\/strong> an excuse to write about a really fun, interesting day. It was also a day that was slightly out of the ordinary \u2013 that took some weeks of thinking about what we really do, and how to communicate that effectively, to anyone.<\/p>\n Learning point 1: <\/strong>It\u2019s important (and enjoyable \u2013 though not always easy) to be able to talk about your work in an approachable, understandable way.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Learning point 2: <\/strong>I am very lucky to get to work in a centre surrounded by such a breadth of interesting and important reasearch.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n(Courtesy of @AdamRutherford<\/a> \u2013 if anyone wants a regular supply of interesting and enjoyable tweets).<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n(2) When I Want To Increase My Sociability By 200%, I Can Lure A Second Person To My Office*\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>WHAT MADE ME GO \u201cHUH\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n(3) I Work In The \u2018Funest Place Ever\u2019.<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
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