I'm sure many of you saw the news going around a few weeks ago. Bras make breasts sag!! The French debate the bra! Etc etc. Of course, I immediately wanted to blog it! I mean, bras! Boobs! That's Friday Weird Science material!

And so I set out looking for the study. Until I realized...there was no study. This is an example of what we like to call "science by press release". However flawed one may feel about the peer-review system in academia*, it's definitely important that SOMEONE be able to see the data and find the potential flaws (or, possibly, back you up in how awesome your science is) that are making the study sag (as it were). The science we are about to talk about? Has not been published yet. It is preliminary. The lead author has in fact been bemused by all the media attention (dude, you study boobs, you didn't think we'd just walk BY, did you?), and has stated that he's withholding final judgement until the paper is out.

Rouillon told Reuters that his unpublished work is still in the early stages and he is hesitant about giving one-size-fits-all advice to women, despite the media circus.

But it is not required that science pass peer review before its reported on (heck, there would be no scientific reporting at science conferences if that was the case). So while the science reported may well be...full-figured enough to pass muster, until they DO report it, it's good to keep in mind that it's preliminary.  This means that we only have bits and pieces of the data, and so drawing any conclusions is going to be premature. It's a good idea to keep in mind, honestly, that all science will probably be replaced by better science over time, but stuff that isn't out yet (and on which we have no real details), deserves extra fish-eye.

So. Eyes up here, friends.

(Source)

Continue Reading »

Does your poop float? Does it sink? Do you have floaters and sinkers depending on the day?

Maybe you're one of those people that never looks to see.

Nah, don't lie. You look.

So if you have looked, surely you've wondered...what makes poop FLOAT? I seem to recall asking my mother this once as a kid and she told me it was fiber and that fiber floats. Since I have now found out that, chemically, that's a dirty lie (she didn't know, so it wasn't intentional, and she always has promoted a high fiber diet), I continued to wonder...why does some poop float while other poop sinks?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. As it were.

(Source. You know that you will now be looking at and rating all your poop. It's unavoidable.)

Levitt and Duane. "Floating Stools - Flautus vs Fat" New England Journal of Medicine, 1973.

Continue Reading »