Wednesday, December 22, 2010

2010's greatest peer-reviewed papers (as measured in comic potential).


Oh I have got to thank Boing Boing for pointing out this gem. Here is a link to the top 10 most popular posts of the year. Funny research, news articles what have you. The are weird oh so very weird, strange and wildly funny. I won't post them all here. If you want to see the complete list, click the article title for the link. Here are some of my favs, from the list.

A study was taken up to ascertain if punk rockers personalities might stem from their spiky hair style of course the study found out that hair style didn't change a thing....punks were punks, rockers or otherwise.....

Contraceptive efficacy of polyester was the subject of a study at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University in Egypt. A physician at the facility examined 14 32-47 year old male volunteers wearing a polyester scrotal sling day and night for 12 months to determine if polyester fabrics can act as a contraceptive in men. The sling was only changed when it became dirty. Efficacy of the sling was demonstrated as none of the subject's partners became pregnant during the study, however an unforeseen reaction did take place. The polyester in the sling developed a static electric charge. Greater electrostatic potentials during the day than at night was measured (326-395 volt/sq. cm. vs. 142-188 volt/sq. cm.; p.01). This was a result of the friction between the scrotum and the polyester sling.

Three words nasal leech infestation

An unusual story of a unmarried woman with acute cancerophobia, (umm probably not a word huh? lol) presented herself at a local clinic after palpating a hard lump in her, to put it delicately, reproductive tract. The woman was asked a series of questions related to symptoms common to reproductive cancers. She exhibited none. Examination did exhibit a large, hard, smooth lump filed the vagina. On removal it was found to be a globular circumscribed object, possessing no capsule, and on section was seen to have a laminated structure. Yes...it was an onion. Far from being happy when told the cure the patient was quite angry.
From the article:
It appeared that her male consort and herself had indulged very freely in alcohol on the previous evening and that he had departed sometime during the night leaving her in a deep sleep on the bed. The removal of the onion from a bunch of its fellows hanging on the back of the door, and its subsequent insertion, had been his parting gesture of affection.”

Oh and there is more, and much more on the NCBI ROFL site

What or who is NCBI ROFL?
We’re two PhD students in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. Back in March of aught-nine, we started a little blog called “NCBI ROFL” in which we posted real scientific articles with funny subjects from the PubMed database (which is housed by the National Center for Biotechnology information, aka NCBI).

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