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Fake Mouse On Twitter Mocks Overgeneralized Scientific Research (twitter.com)

DevNull127 writes: Research scientist James Heathers is a postdoctoral research associate working on bio-signals and meta-science research at Northeastern University, with a PhD from the University of Sydney. He's also pretending to be a mouse on Twitter. And every tweet consists of the exact same two words...

Heathers retweets articles about scientific studies — usually articles with glossy photos and enticing headlines like "Exercise during pregnancy protects children from obesity, study finds." His tweets add the two crucial missing words. "In mice."

In this case a doctoral student at Washington State University measured a specific protein's level in the offspring of mice that performed 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every morning during pregnancy — and in regular mice. On the basis of that he recommended "that women — whether or not they are obese or have diabetes — exercise regularly during pregnancy because it benefits their children's metabolic health."

The name of the Twitter feed: JustSaysInMice.

Other mouse-based studies turning up on the Twitter feed:
  • How Fatty Diets Stop the Brain From Saying 'No' To Food
  • Reused Cooking Oil Ups Risk of Metastases In Breast Cancer Patients
  • Keto Diet Not Effective, Causes Blood Sugar Problems In Women
  • Growth Hormone Acts To Foil Weight Loss: Study

When you read those headlines, just remember to add those two words...

"In mice."


3 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. 7 tweets! by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    no idea. it's garbage tier.

  2. Re:Will this academic question climate 'scientists by Pseudonym · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Climate scientists don't typically use mouse models if that's what you were asking.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  3. Re:Nicely sums up the problems with science-report by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It also desensitizes people to truly important things. I feel that there would be a lot less backlash to things like climate change if they weren't force fed bullshit nonstop. Thanks in large part to useless science reporting, people believe that science is indecisive and incompetent. I still remembering wtf'ing about the back and forth "eggs are good" "eggs are bad" a couple decades ago.

    IMO a reporter needs to have taken courses in stats and spend time doing actual research before being allowed to report it.