Threatened masculinity, Rambling points, Sedate entertainment, Masterly inactivity, Tiny Truths

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them:

Threatened masculinity — … Psychology research procedures can be innovative and intricate, especially in the US. A study called “Examining the effect of threatened masculinity on gun violence” by Brittany Vincent and her colleagues at St. Joseph’s University in New York showcases these qualities…. It is at this point that things get interesting: each participant will then “either have their masculinity threatened or be assigned to a control group”. In the final stage, the interestingness continues to grow: “participants will be asked to play a game involving an online voodoo doll where they will be asked to pretend the voodoo doll is the person from the recording, and to shoot the voodoo doll”.A bunch of points — … Mathematician Ravi Vakil at Stanford University in California wrote a phrase you might apply to lecturers who ramble at whim – who flit yon, thither and hither as they tell some simple fact….Sedate entertainment — … “But amusing the patient? During surgery under general anaesthesia, no patient amusement is required, and keeping the surgeon amused and in good humour is the best service the anaesthetist can provide for the theatre staff. Stories, chat and anecdote all help. “Surgery under local anaesthesia demands the same amusement for the patient. And what you learn! Under mild sedation, as under mild intoxication, all sorts of stories come out about their lives, none of which may be repeated, of course.”Masterly inactivity — … “[Long ago] a highly respected clinician, for whom I was working, explained that if you were not sure what was wrong or what treatment to give, then you should give MICLO therapy. MICLO stood for ‘masterly inactivity and cat-like observation’….”Tiny truths — Alison Flood, New Scientist‘s comment and culture editor, offhandedly came up with a good new definition for medicine: “quite gross – but also interesting”. Those five words remind Feedback of biologist Dany Adams’s classic seven-word definition of biology: “If it can get infected, it’s biology.” Can you come up with a pithy new definition (of seven or fewer words) for some scientific concept? If so, please send it to: “TINY TRUTHS” c/o Feedback.