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#119 10/22/04 10:25 AM
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A survey of academics suggests that male scientists are good at research because they have the hormone levels of women...

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20040922054756data_trunc_sys.shtml

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" The survey - conducted by Dr Mark Brosnan - examined the finger lengths of over 100 male and female academics at the University."

He didn't look at absolute hormone levels, he looked at putative markers for relative hormone levels. Testosterone and estrogen hormone assays are cheap, fast, and performed at huge throughputs - Olympic and general sports doping assays. The cited research is execrable.

The position of the whorl of hair on your head is coupled to your preferred handedness. Except, it isn\'t . There is genetic weak breakthrough. You could graph the results and fit a line and get statistically consistent results that would in no way point to the actual genetic mechanism.

Psychology is crap beating a big bass drum. What lovely clothes the emperor is not wearing this morning.


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Or maybe the reason is that they don't spend all of their time thinking about who is going to win the World Series and other imbecilic trivialities.

Ooh ... whose the intern.
Ooh ... whose the survivor.
Ooh ... which toothpaste to buy.

It might just being a matter of an ability to apply one's brain to a problem that has more than superficial import.


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The whole finger length thing sounds an awful lot like phrenology to me. "Oh, you have a bump here on your skull; I won't hire you, you're a natural murderer."

I can just see some latter-day Hitler measuring people's hands and sending them either to the gas chamber or the labor camp...I'm feeling ill. frown

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Quote:
Originally posted by Amaranth Rose:
The whole finger length thing sounds an awful lot like phrenology to me. "Oh, you have a bump here on your skull; I won't hire you, you're a natural murderer."
The ability to completely circle one's wrist with one's thumb and index(?) finger has been associated with sudden cardiac death. Phrenology like?

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so it pays to have short fingers and fat wrists?

Sounds suspicious to me.


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Quote:
Originally posted by Informer:
The ability to completely circle one's wrist with one's thumb and index(?) finger has been associated with sudden cardiac death. Phrenology like?
No disrespect intended, but it seems like humans have a great desire/need to assign causes to effects, after which they pat themselves on the back and trot off, blithely assuming they have solved the problem when the real cause is totally obscured. For example, in Colonial America, they were all too ready to blame poor widow women for the ills of their children when in fact it was because there were ergot sclerotia in the grain from which they made their bread. And I'm sure there are many, countless other examples where people have been maimed or killed and later found to be innocent, that one just came readily to mind.

If the wrist thing you say is true, what is the underlying cause of them both? What is the genetic marker, what is the incubation condition, which gives rise to these two events simultaneously? Logic says one cannot cause the other. What survival advantage or neutral disadvantage does it confer upon the individual? Sickle cell trait confers immunity to malaria in the case of a single allele, yet causes Sickle Cell Anemia when two are present. What is this gene that makes people have long fingers and sensitive hearts? What's it doing in the human genome elsewhere that's helped us survive?

And to what use will this information be put? "I'm sorry, Mr. Rostopovich, but your finger and thumb circle your wrist, so we can't write you an insurance policy. Too risky." Or, "Mr. Johnson, I afraid we can't hire you as an over the road truck driver, because your physical shows that you have this characteristic that indicates you have a high risk of dropping dead suddenly, and we can't afford that."

Or, imagine pre-marital advice: prospective mates surreptitiously studying their partner's hands, calculating the odds of ending up a rich widow or widower.

I'm not a great fan of fortune telling, and I'm afraid that's more or less the use to which I think some people would put this sort of information. You see, I was told I would not live to be 21, and I'm 47 and have no intentions of giving up the lease any time soon. But if I'd realized I WAS going to live this long I'd have tried to take a little bit better care of the chassis! laugh

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Quote:
Originally posted by Kate:
A survey of academics suggests that male scientists are good at research because they have the hormone levels of women...
Is it true? Is it possible then, that female scientists have hormon levels of men? eek

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Maybe swine have the hormone levels of rabbits. Maybe dolphins identify with their prey and feel remorse at killing them for food. I'm sure we can use the study as a predictor of lots of research. In fact, why do the research at all? Why not just stop all research because it's "God's will"? Then we can get rid of those nasty scientists and their evil heresies like evolution. Then our children will be safe, and we'll be safe. Dumb as rocks, but safe.

Oh, yeah!

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Kate, you know that's not true...


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