The Archives of Uncomfortable Research

Cerebral responses evoked by electrical stimulation of rectosigmoid in normal subjects.

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:56:55 -0400

Frieling, T., Enck, P., and Wienbeck, M. (1989). Cerebral responses evoked by electrical stimulation of rectosigmoid in normal subjects. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 34(2):202–205.

I wish I knew what motivated this experiment. I really do. Thanks to secret agent MWT for this one.

Paper Here - Frieling1989.pdf

Life-Threatening Nail Gun Injuries

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:19:47 -0400

Beaver, A. C. and Cheatham, M. L. (1999). Life-threatening nail gun injuries. Am Surg, 65(12):1113–1116.

Yes. I promised you nail gun fun- and here’s a good start. In the CAT scan above note 1) hole and 2) nail. Ouch...

Enjoy the fun - Beaver1999.pdf.

Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 11:48:17 -0400

Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. Rebecca L. Burch, and Steven M. Platek. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 31, No. 3, June 2002, pp. 289–293.

From our graduation-engorged field reporter Gabi we have this a little study of bumming out and semen. I was unable to find a suitable image from the article, so I have substituted a generic image of science.

BDI ± Condom Use = Happy/Sad Girls!

In an slightly-related note, in her thesis, Maya found what is best titled the Reverse-Elaine Effect in women. I’ll leave the explanation as an exercise to the well-versed Seinfeld aficionado.

Have at the PDF here: Gallup 2002 Arch Sex Behav.pdf

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Thu, 3 May 2007 19:43:23 -0400

Gordon C S Smith, Jill P Pell, BMJ 2003;327;1459-1461.

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7429.1459

From our intrepid field reporter, MC Reservoir Tip, comes this investigation of the efficacy of parachutes. Apparently, there have been no randomized, controlled trials of parachutes (“OK troops, on this jump, half of you will have a parachute and the other half will have a backpack full of silverware...”)

My favorite observation:

Individuals who insist that all interventions need
to be validated by a randomised controlled trial
need to come down to earth with a bump

Let’s play safe out there folks.

Download the PDF file here.

Epidemiology and prognosis of coma in daytime television dramas

Mon, 2 Apr 2007 18:24:34 -0400

David Casarett, Jessica M Fishman, Holly Jo MacMoran, Amy Pickard and David A Asch. BMJ 2005;331;1537-1539.

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1537

(Yes, the image above is of a band called COMA... there are no good illustrations in the paper so this is what Google Images gave me... So, big ups to COMA.)

When you’re bored and need that extra pub to get you over the tenure hump, nothing better than thinking about folks who are subject to various traumatic events on soap operas. The table on how they met their fate is quite nice.

They basically find that TV-comas give folks a unrealistic expectation as to the outcomes of coma. Most TV patients fared much better than average.

So- if you’re going to go into a coma, do it on TV.

Download the PDF

The Sensory Cortical Representation of the Human Penis: Revisiting Somatotopy in the Male Homunculus

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:57:16 -0400

CA Kell, K von Kriegstein, A Rösler, A Kleinschmidt, and H Laufs, The Journal of Neuroscience, 2005, volume 25, number 25, pages 5984–5987.

So, if you look carefully at your intro psych book or perception book there is this matter of the penis. Your body’s sensory ‘map’ is largely topographically correct - that is, things that are next to each other on your body are next to each other on the sensory strip. Some areas are exaggerated in the amount of cortex dedicated to them (see above). The one weird exception in most illustrations is the penis (male, as pointed out above). It is typically illustrated as being below the feet in the sensory map (thus my love of foot massages perhaps?).

Our researchers suggest that this notion might be mistaken-

Download PDF

"Here’s egg in your eye": a prospective study of blunt ocular trauma resulting from thrown eggs

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:07:58 -0400

R M K Stewart, J M Durnian and M C Briggs, Emerg. Med. J., 2006, volume 23 pages 756–758.
doi:10.1136/emj.2006.035501

From our RPI correspondent, The Eyeball Kid, comes this gem, just in time for Halloween! Let’s be careful out there kids - let’s go below the waist with those things.

Coincidentally, I was visiting my ophthalmologist yesterday and he confirmed this finding around this time of year. He said “lots of paint-ball injuries too.”

Download PDF

Bonus! One of the cited papers available here.

Drawn to drink: A double-blind randomised cross-over trial of the effects of magnets on the taste of cheap red wine

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:34:35 -0400

G. James Rubin, Gareth Hahn, Edward Allberry, Ross Innes and Simon Wessely, Journal of Wine Research, 2005, volume 16, number 1, pages 65-69.

OK, cheap red wine + magnets ≠ mad delicious. Thank goodness there’s empirical evidence.

Download PDF

The possible pain experienced during execution by different methods

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:16:28 -0400

Harold Hillman, Perception, 1993, volume 22, pages 745 - 753.

Why not start out with a classic? Hillman has looked into various forms of execution and how said processes might be perceived by the condemned.

Download PDF

Hi…

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:16:17 -0400

Over my scientist years I have collected a literal pile o’ journal articles on strange things. Strange things stuck in places, bizarre methodologies, and lots of nail guns.

To this end, I present the Archives of Uncomfortable Research to share the love with you.

My plan is to feature a new paper each week, we’ll see how long that holds out. Please let me know how things are working out for you, drop me a PDF of a paper that might fit the collection, and call your Mom.