Hilarious Journal Articles and NCBI ROFL

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Joshua Schwimmer, MD, FACP, FASN

Levitating Frog, Image via Wikipedia

Two years ago, I began collecting "hilarious journal articles" and posting them on kidneynotes.com. Here's a sample:

• The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics
• Didgeridoo playing as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea
• Differences between male physicians, surgeons, and film stars
• A randomized trial of placebo versus placebo
• The Impact of Video Games on Surgeons
• Niacin Intoxication from Pumpernickel Bagels
• A Systemic Review of Parachute Use to Prevent Death Related to Gravitational Challenge
  

At last count, I had collected 98 articles. If you're interested, you can peruse the entire collection at delicious.com.

(Please note that sometimes these articles are about conditions that are deadly serious, and my intention is not to make fun of anyone, but to show appreciation for humor in scientific writing, which is often dry.)

Hilarious journal articles even have their own awards: the Ig Nobel Prizes, which has been presented at Harvard since 1991. You'll find the complete collection of prize winners here.

And since January of 2009, two Molecular and Cell Biology graduate students at UC Berkeley have written a blog devoted entirely to squirt-milk-out-your-nose grade scientific research. Their website is NCBI ROFL, which stands for National Center for Biotechnology Information — creators of PubMed, where most of the abstracts are published — Rolling On The Floor Laughing.

It's outstanding. Go have a look.

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