Re the article in the Independent on Sunday, "How the Moon rules your life" http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2171687.ece
On 21 January David Campbell wrote: >I reviewed the literature on lunar phase vs. human behavior a number >of years ago with one of my students, John Beets. We concluded that >the studies reporting a link provide examples of Type I error. This >conclusion is probably still valid. And Stephen Black wrote: > Judging from a PubMed (search on "lunar" and "behavior") there are a smattering of both positive and negative claims since >then. The article appears to have picked out a few of the positive >ones, although we have no guarantee that they were any better >that the ones which Martin et al trashed. Ive checked out the journalist who wrote the article, Roger Dobson: he's freelance and writes on numerous topics. Here is an extract from one of his articles in the Independent, from 2002: "Scientists played CDs to fish for four years to establish they can identify a few bars of Schubert's Trout Quintet... " 'Prior to these experiments, there was scepticism about whether carp could discriminate one piece of music from another. Now it appears they can appreciate tunes, melodic patterns and even classify music by artistic genre,' says Ava Chase who carried out the research." http://www.hedweb.com/animimag/smartfish.html I checked to see if the date was April First, but it was 13 January. No news about replication as far as I know. I notice a certain pattern in Dobson's reporting. In the fishy article he writes "scientists have established that..."; in the moon article: "Scientists suggest that...". Oh, those ubiquitous "scientists"! Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org/ -------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:11:58 -0800 Author: David Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: How the Moon rules your life - eg, hormones > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > --------------010608060805040409030102 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > I reviewed the literature on lunar phase vs. human behavior a number of > years ago with one of my students, John Beets. We concluded that the > studies reporting a link provide examples of Type I error. This > conclusion is probably still valid. > --Dave > > Campbell, D. E., & Beets, J. L. (1978). Lunacy and the moon. > > /Psychological Bulletin/, /85/, 1123-1129. > > Campbell, D. E. (1982). Lunar-lunacy research: When enough is enough. > > / Environment/ /and Behavior/, /14/, 418-414. > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > This came up on another list I subscribe to ... > ___________________________________________________________________ > > David E. Campbell, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Department of Psychology Phone: 707-826-3721 > Humboldt State University FAX: 707-826-4993 > Arcata, CA 95521-8299 www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm > <http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Ecampbell/psyc.htm> > > > I reviewed the literature on lunar phase vs. human behavior a number of > years ago with one of my students, John Beets. We concluded that the > studies reporting a link provide examples of Type I error. This > conclusion is probably still valid.<br> > --Dave --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
