Monthly Archives: February 2011

Gnome Physics

All subatomic particles — electrons, protons, neutrons and so on — are composed of extremely small gnomes. While relatively unknown, the gnome theory of matter can successfully explain many physical phenomena, including gravitation, electromagnetism, the photoelectric effect, and the wavelike properties of matter. Gravitation It is widely known that gnomes are a rambunctious species, preferring …

February 28, 2011 – 10:04 pm | By Cap'n Refsmmat | Posted in Fun Stuff, Science | Comments (9)

Statistical Significance of Doom (part 2)

False positives are somewhat scarier than false negatives. What if my research claims a drug cures cancer, giving thousands of sufferers hope, but it turns out to be useless? (Before you go on, make sure you’ve read part 1 in my series on statistical significance, since it has some important detail.) If we followed the …

February 21, 2011 – 10:59 pm | By Cap'n Refsmmat | Posted in Math, Science | Comments (5)

Statistical Significance of Doom (part 1)

I was recently assigned to give a 25-minute presentation on a subject of my choice. After choosing “scientific dishonesty and fraud,” I happened upon a paper by John Ioannidis claiming that “Most Published Research Findings Are False.” After skimming through Ioannidis’ paper and reading some of the references, I quickly changed my presentation’s title to …

February 21, 2011 – 10:24 pm | By Cap'n Refsmmat | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (4)