explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-07T16:05:02Z

Timband:

Sentence case, or down style, is one method, preferred by many print and online publications and recommended by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The only two rules are the two rules mentioned above: Capitalize the first word and all proper nouns. Everything else is in lowercase. http://www.dailywritingtips.com/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles/ [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.154|173.245.50.154]] 12:30, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance

The p-value alone can never be an indicator of significance. However, it is still often used as the only indicator, because a full set of parameters (including sample size, test setup, etc.) can't easily be packed into a single number. There's a nice article in nature about this problem: [http://www.nature.com/news/scientific-method-statistical-errors-1.14700]
I can also recommend [http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800this story] about (ab-)using hacked p-values to get maximum publicity. I hope this helps :-) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.183|141.101.105.183]] 12:41, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the joke is that these newspapers are talking about how bad science is, and yet they manage to come up with a stupid story about Bunsen burners, presumably being too scientifically illiterate to know the problem. [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 12:55, 7 September 2015 (UTC) Although reading the other comments, it's a much better joke if the Bunsen Burner story is actually true, because that makes all of them about journalists not realising that they are highlighting their own ignorance. [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 16:05, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

See [[Significant]] for another comic on p-values.--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 14:22, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder

Actually, I can easily imagine a way to use a Bunsen burner to make something colder. Involving an unlit Bunsen burner that has been placed in the freezer for a couple hours, for example. Nowhere in the headline is there any mention of a flame. --[[User:Svenman|Svenman]] ([[User talk:Svenman|talk]]) 12:59, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

:Actually, there was a (badly formatted and badly placed, probably therefore now removed) comment on the explanation page earlier which pointed out that feeding a Bunsen burner from a propane bottle will cause the pressure, and therefore the temperature, in the bottle to decrease. That is a lot less contrived than my original idea. --[[User:Svenman|Svenman]] ([[User talk:Svenman|talk]]) 13:37, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

::That was me. Trying to get my 2 cents in on my phone before I forgot. http://www.propane101.com/propaneregulatorfreezing.htm as an example. [[User:Mattiep|Mattiep]] ([[User talk:Mattiep|talk]]) 13:45, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the joke is in the wording of the headlines. The fact that a replication study fails to reproduce can be seen as a contradiction. Overfeeding rodents leads to fat rodents. This compromises their ability to function als animal (runway) models. I haven't figured out the other ones yet. But that's çause I'm dumb :-). Alva. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.80}}

:It's way simpler than that - The joke is that people outside of sciences (with no understanding really of how to science) will report basically anything that sounds shocking or exciting, especially if it proves those nerdy, scary scientists wrong! So Randall gives us a bunch of possibly headlines that to a layman read like real, scary news about science, but to scientists this is stuff that is generally well known and understood. The last one is just taking it a step further for credulous news editors - They've been lying to us all this time! 13:33, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
::I think it's even simpler than that: the title is "Trouble for Science" and it shows a series of misleading headlines about misleading (i.e.: invalidated) scientific studies. The implication is "Trouble for Journalism".[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.87|173.245.54.87]] 14:21, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-07T12:55:26Z

Timband: /* Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance */

1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-07T12:53:31Z

Timband: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
Five newspaper headlines are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this PhD thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
p-value is the probability that an event is observed just by chance. If p-value is under a treshold level (''α'', usually <5%, or <1% for being more conservative) one can assume that the event observed "exists".
The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is completely arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf: Hubbard and Lindsay].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf: Keenan et al.] make this case.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study Replication Study] is a study designed to replicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensuring that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
This is a joke. There is probably some methodological error if putting something under the Bunsen burner flame (which is between 1000K and 2000K) makes it colder. Unless of course that thing is already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 degrees Kelvin).

Title text:

;Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution

Then why do tanks of propane freeze?http://www.propane101.com/propaneregulatorfreezing.htm. Just need to sufficiently control the study.

==Transcript==
[A simple comic consisting of five newspaper headlines]

Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1554: Spice Girls

2015-07-22T10:43:54Z

Timband:

Is this a reference to "seven"[https://xkcd.com/1417/]?
*Brother, who art thou? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 06:48, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

(above is not me)I think that the final frame may also be a single element of different sets: Gender {properties of a noun/pronoun, such as case and number}, Baleen {types of whales} are relatively clear the others I can only guess (POG {#1 games of the '90s}?(pretty wild guess), story {if it were "plot" or "setting/scene" I'd guess "elements of a story", but I don't know what "story" could be an element of}, Sarah could either be of biblical significance (mothers of Abrahamic nations?) or popular name significance--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.26|173.245.52.26]] 06:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, a coincidence, or did Randall use the "90's Theme" quite often, lately? [[1546: Tamagotchi Hive]], [[1548: 90s Kid]], [[1552: Rulebook]] and this one are all about things more or less popular in the 90's [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to J.L. Borges' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge| Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge], a supposed Chinese manuscript in which animals are divided into categories that seem to us to be completely crazy. Borges is trying to get us to imagine a culture that would find such categorization natural, and hence show how our own ways of organizing the world might seem crazy from the outside. If this is correct (and not just a massive overintellectualization!) Randall is showing us the madness of dividing women into ginger/scary/baby/sporty/posh, and hence the madness of pop culture. Whether this is the intent or not, reading Borges is Not Optional! [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 10:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1554: Spice Girls

2015-07-22T10:43:28Z

Timband:

Is this a reference to "seven"[https://xkcd.com/1417/]?
*Brother, who art thou? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 06:48, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

(above is not me)I think that the final frame may also be a single element of different sets: Gender {properties of a noun/pronoun, such as case and number}, Baleen {types of whales} are relatively clear the others I can only guess (POG {#1 games of the '90s}?(pretty wild guess), story {if it were "plot" or "setting/scene" I'd guess "elements of a story", but I don't know what "story" could be an element of}, Sarah could either be of biblical significance (mothers of Abrahamic nations?) or popular name significance--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.26|173.245.52.26]] 06:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, a coincidence, or did Randall use the "90's Theme" quite often, lately? [[1546: Tamagotchi Hive]], [[1548: 90s Kid]], [[1552: Rulebook]] and this one are all about things more or less popular in the 90's [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to J.L. Borges' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge| Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge]], a supposed Chinese manuscript in which animals are divided into categories that seem to us to be completely crazy. Borges is trying to get us to imagine a culture that would find such categorization natural, and hence show how our own ways of organizing the world might seem crazy from the outside. If this is correct (and not just a massive overintellectualization!) Randall is showing us the madness of dividing women into ginger/scary/baby/sporty/posh, and hence the madness of pop culture. Whether this is the intent or not, reading Borges is Not Optional! [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 10:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1554: Spice Girls

2015-07-22T10:43:06Z

Timband:

Is this a reference to "seven"[https://xkcd.com/1417/]?
*Brother, who art thou? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 06:48, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

(above is not me)I think that the final frame may also be a single element of different sets: Gender {properties of a noun/pronoun, such as case and number}, Baleen {types of whales} are relatively clear the others I can only guess (POG {#1 games of the '90s}?(pretty wild guess), story {if it were "plot" or "setting/scene" I'd guess "elements of a story", but I don't know what "story" could be an element of}, Sarah could either be of biblical significance (mothers of Abrahamic nations?) or popular name significance--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.26|173.245.52.26]] 06:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, a coincidence, or did Randall use the "90's Theme" quite often, lately? [[1546: Tamagotchi Hive]], [[1548: 90s Kid]], [[1552: Rulebook]] and this one are all about things more or less popular in the 90's [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to J.L. Borges' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge|Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge]], a supposed Chinese manuscript in which animals are divided into categories that seem to us to be completely crazy. Borges is trying to get us to imagine a culture that would find such categorization natural, and hence show how our own ways of organizing the world might seem crazy from the outside. If this is correct (and not just a massive overintellectualization!) Randall is showing us the madness of dividing women into ginger/scary/baby/sporty/posh, and hence the madness of pop culture. Whether this is the intent or not, reading Borges is Not Optional! [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 10:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1554: Spice Girls

2015-07-22T10:42:16Z

Timband:

Is this a reference to "seven"[https://xkcd.com/1417/]?
*Brother, who art thou? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 06:48, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

(above is not me)I think that the final frame may also be a single element of different sets: Gender {properties of a noun/pronoun, such as case and number}, Baleen {types of whales} are relatively clear the others I can only guess (POG {#1 games of the '90s}?(pretty wild guess), story {if it were "plot" or "setting/scene" I'd guess "elements of a story", but I don't know what "story" could be an element of}, Sarah could either be of biblical significance (mothers of Abrahamic nations?) or popular name significance--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.26|173.245.52.26]] 06:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, a coincidence, or did Randall use the "90's Theme" quite often, lately? [[1546: Tamagotchi Hive]], [[1548: 90s Kid]], [[1552: Rulebook]] and this one are all about things more or less popular in the 90's [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to J.L. Borges' [[Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge|Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge]], a supposed Chinese manuscript in which animals are divided into categories that seem to us to be completely crazy. Borges is trying to get us to imagine a culture that would find such categorization natural, and hence show how our own ways of organizing the world might seem crazy from the outside. If this is correct (and not just a massive overintellectualization!) Randall is showing us the madness of dividing women into ginger/scary/baby/sporty/posh, and hence the madness of pop culture. Whether this is the intent or not, reading Borges is Not Optional! [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 10:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1554: Spice Girls

2015-07-22T10:41:29Z

Timband: Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge

Is this a reference to "seven"[https://xkcd.com/1417/]?
*Brother, who art thou? [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 06:48, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

(above is not me)I think that the final frame may also be a single element of different sets: Gender {properties of a noun/pronoun, such as case and number}, Baleen {types of whales} are relatively clear the others I can only guess (POG {#1 games of the '90s}?(pretty wild guess), story {if it were "plot" or "setting/scene" I'd guess "elements of a story", but I don't know what "story" could be an element of}, Sarah could either be of biblical significance (mothers of Abrahamic nations?) or popular name significance--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.26|173.245.52.26]] 06:14, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, a coincidence, or did Randall use the "90's Theme" quite often, lately? [[1546: Tamagotchi Hive]], [[1548: 90s Kid]], [[1552: Rulebook]] and this one are all about things more or less popular in the 90's [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:56, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to J.L. Borges' [[Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge]], a supposed Chinese manuscript in which animals are divided into categories that seem to us to be completely crazy. Borges is trying to get us to imagine a culture that would find such categorization natural, and hence show how our own ways of organizing the world might seem crazy from the outside. If this is correct (and not just a massive overintellectualization!) Randall is showing us the madness of dividing women into ginger/scary/baby/sporty/posh, and hence the madness of pop culture. Whether this is the intent or not, reading Borges is Not Optional! [[User:Timband|Timband]] ([[User talk:Timband|talk]]) 10:41, 22 July 2015 (UTC)