Scientific Method / Science & Exploration

Forget tennis elbow: Weird Science identifies tennis butt

Weird Science joins a group but doesn't act like a teammate, dodges stray …

Does this sport make my butt look funny?: The format of PLoS ONE papers is such that the authors get to write a short description of the purpose of their work. And a set of Spanish authors has not disappointed, noting that their purpose was, "To determine the volume and degree of asymmetry of iliopsoas (IL) and gluteal muscles (GL) in tennis and soccer players." What they don't really do a good job of explaining is why they were so interested in the derrières of athletes. In any case, they predicted that both soccer and tennis players would have asymmetric rears, the better to support kicking and swinging from a dominant side. They got that right for tennis, but soccer players manage to maintain distinctly symmetric posteriors. The paper's rather long-winded discussion hazards a few guesses as to why, but that's about as far as it goes.

(Found via the pseudonymous blogger Scicurious.)

It's probably best to leave your colon messy: Apparently, colon cleansing has become a bit of a health fad, with various products being offered to aid the process. And that's a bad thing. There's still no evidence that indicates it does anything positive—a search for positive effects "yielded no scientifically robust studies in support of this practice." But it can do negative things. The paper includes two reports of people who have suffered some nasty side effects of the process, and note that a search of the literature does reveal all sorts of unpleasantries, from cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea up to renal failure. Although it's a good health measure to keep your hands clean, that clearly does not extend to all of your internal organs.

Fitting in to a group without helping the group: We've all met the sorts of people who adjust their behavior to fit in better with a group. And now a study has come along that confirms our worst suspicions about them: they don't actually care about the wellbeing of the group they're trying to fit in to. Some researchers from the University of East Anglia set up a public goods game, where participants could contribute some resources so that the entire group would benefit. Those that valued being accepted by the group the most were less likely to share resources for said group's benefit. The highest contributions came from those who had the lowest interest in being socially desirable, but only under specific circumstances: the experimenter had to praise their previous contributions to get them to cough up more.

Quitting might give you the shakes in more ways than one: This is a somewhat odd result that's been kicking around for a while, but now we're getting some ideas about how it actually happens on a molecular level. Nicotine is a highly addictive stimulant, and can actually be used to kill insects, so it's pretty nasty stuff. But, among all its other effects, there is at least one positive: it protects against the development of Parkinson's disease. The new paper shows that the neurons that are lost in Parkinson's patients are specifically protected by nicotine, in a way that depends on their regular activity.

If you want to quit smoking, try your best not to do anything healthy: There's a well known psychological phenomenon called the licensing effect, which goes a long way toward explaining why so many diet sodas appear on the same order as supersized french fries. In short, someone who feels that they're doing something positive for their health or wellbeing views it as justification for letting down their guard a bit, and ends up sabotaging the whole thing. Unfortunately, the licensing effect works with smoking, too. People who took dietary supplements were more likely to increase their rates of smoking, with the magnitude of the increase correlating with the degree to which they felt vitamins benefitted their health. The other significant influence on the uptick in smoking? "Perceived invulnerability."

If you do do anything healthy, it's still a crapshoot: What's the secret of living to a ripe old age? Some researchers surveyed individuals who have lived to 95 and older, and come to the conclusion that... we don't have a clue. All the things we associate with healthy lifestyles—no smoking, low obesity, moderate alcohol consumption, regular exercise—didn't seem to make any difference when it comes to longevity. All the authors can conclude is that, "This requires further investigation."

Obvious result of the week: those hit by stray bullets have no idea what hit them: The last time Weird Science touched on a study by one Garen Wintemute, we quickly learned that the National Rifle Association really doesn't think much of his work. But, without even realizing it, we found ourselves drawn back in by his latest JAMA publication, which contains such deliciously weird lines such as the one that defines a stray bullet as "having escaped the sociogeographic space or perimeter customarily set by the circumstances surrounding the firing of the gun." The non-surprise of the results: people who are hit by stray bullets aren't aware they're at risk: "Most of the persons shot (81 percent) were unaware of the events leading to the gunfire that caused their injuries." Those accidentally shot don't fit the profile of the typical people involved with gun violence, either.

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