It’s been 4 months since Research the Headlines went live, with the support of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland.
We’ve tried to cover as broad a range of topics as possible, from the technology behind future supercomputers and new states of matter, to how we should address risk in sexual health, and what legislation can do to mitigate global warming. We’ve asked whether we can watch bacteria evolve before our eyes in the lab, whether brain training games work and how well can we predict the weather. We’ve even looked at the internet’s favourite news delivery system, the infographic, and shown how some make claims that aren’t always backed up by the evidence.
At times, we’ve been delighted by how well the media has covered complex research into important issues such as autism and dementia, and the efforts they’ve made to track down the people carrying it out.
At other times, we’ve been forced to highlight how the media not only makes mistakes, but sometimes invents a scientific basis for a story that doesn’t exist. We’ve even taken the occasional columnist to task when airing their opinions of how research is conducted.
The Research the Headlines team hope you’ve enjoyed reading our posts, and we look forward to bringing you our perspectives on the reporting of research in 2014!
The seasonably cold weather motivated this second entry in my series of Infographic Analyses. I’m originally from Michigan (the photo is me with my dad in a slightly snowier-than-normal Michigan winter) and spent a few years in Ontario, Canada, so I don’t need any help handling the relatively mild Scottish winters, but Jones Oil has produced a infographic on The Science of Staying Warm to help those with less experience with the cold. So let’s have a look at the evidence behind their claims.
Many of us are interested in how different lifestyle choices might affect our health and wellbeing. If we have good information, the choice to do certain things, or give others up, is within our control (given certain social and environmental constraints, of course). But what about factors that might affect our future health over which we have little or no control? A particularly topical example is economic recession. While indications are that things are improving in the UK economy, it has been the “longest and deepest recession since comparable records began in the 1950s” (taken from a good introductory guide from the BBC). How might that extended period of economic uncertainty affect adults who lived through and continue to be affected by those adverse conditions?
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you might have noticed I mainly focus on factors that are proposed as helpful or harmful to the ageing brain (recent posts have considered research examining how cocoa or cleanliness might be associated with cognitive changes in old age, for example). However, our cognitive performance in later life is strongly determined by our cognitive development across the lifecourse. A critical question is therefore: “what factors might promote the development of our mental skills throughout childhood and adolescence?” A recent study which was widely reported in the media (the Scotsman and Express, for example) addressed this by examining how physical activity was associated with academic attainment in children of secondary school age.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is probably the most maligned chemical of the 21st Century. It is utilized in a huge number of materials, most commonly as an ingredient in the synthesis of polycarbonate plastics, where it is chemically linked by carbonate groups to form hard, transparent polymers that are used in food packaging and drinks bottles. BPA is a known endocrine disruptor (it affects human hormone levels) and stimulates estrogen production, which has led to a recent study suggesting it as a cause of migraines: powerful, debilitating headaches which affect approximately 1 billion people. Could the leaching of BPA from polycarbonate-based food packaging be contributing to the world’s migraine epidemic, as a recent study reported in the Daily Mail suggests?
In this month’s issue of Nature, William J. Sutherland, David Spiegelhalter, and Mark Burgman – three scientists in the fields of Zoology, Mathematical Sciences, and Biosecurity Risk Analysis, respectively – address the tricky problem of the interpretation of scientific research by interested non-specialists, specifically politicians. In their comment article, they argue that, rather than expecting politicians to learn the science, or scientists to get involved in politics, the ‘imperfect nature of science’ should be better understood by all. They propose 20 concepts that the non-specialist reader should be aware of when judging the implications of, or the actions that should result from, a particular piece of scientific research.
At this time of year, the media is full of dire predictions for the upcoming winter. The Daily Express’ recent headline stated that the Winter of 2013/14 was forecast to be ‘the worst in 100 years‘, with record snowfall and below-average temperatures from November onwards. This headline came from long range forecasts given by Vantage Weather Services and Exacta Weather, private companies that generate forecasts independently from the more familiar Met Office.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common pervasive developmental disorder amongst children of school age and it is therefore not surprising that researchers will look to determine factors that may be linked to or even cause the disorder. The findings of a recently published study with a Finnish sample have been interpreted by the media as showing a link between steroid use in premature infants and the development of ADHD. How credible is this link?
Early diagnosis of developmental disorders is of significant interest to parents because of the opportunity to engage in early interventions that may be more effective earlier in development. It is not surprising then that a study, published in the highly reputable journal Nature, that suggests differences can be detected in children as young as 2 months old who go on to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has received such significant attention.
Dementia is a syndrome (i.e. a collection of symptoms) that tends to affect those over 65. It is generally described as a global loss of cognitive ability, including language skills, memory, understanding and judgement. It can be a debilitating condition, frightening for both the sufferer and their family, and a growing concern in an aging population. A great deal of scientific effort is going into strategies to prevent the onset of dementia in the elderly.
What did the scientists say?
Previous studies have shown that the onset of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease can be delayed by as long as five years by multilingualism (i.e. being fluent in two or more languages). It is believed that the process of learning and using another language boosts the brain’s “cognitive reserve“, acting as a form of “brain training” to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
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