Unsurprisingly, new research proves that most new research is wrong:

Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true.

Of course, that won’t keep the press from jumping on every scientific paper that meets their agenda and reporting it as truth. Or the government, as pointed out by John Stossel when tells us about government spending based on junk science.

So we should probably take most of the following stories with a big grain of salt.

A survey of 24,000 students shows that men really are smarter than women, by an average of 5 IQ points.

They showed that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees.

When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

Astounding! Which is why, on the average, men in the workplace make more money than women. We’re smarter, so we make more! [Heh. Just kidding. No hate mail please.]

Eat beef and combat cancer, body fat and the onset of Diabetes. So finds Sigmund, Carl and Alfred.

Brit soldiers are getting germ-fighting underwear:

A military spokesman said the underwear is not only coated to prevent bacterial infection, developers tried to arrange the seams so they don’t chafe.

Not noted is the infamous question once posed to Willie Clinton: boxers or briefs?

Good news on the Ozone front: the famed layer of toxic O3 gas that protects us from UV radiation has stopped shrinking, even though the hole over the Antartic is bigger than ever. The press, of course, is hailing the 1987 international agreement that banned ozone-depleting gases such as CFC. Meanwhile, studies that show that the ozone loss is related to sun activity and solar winds, bands of atmospheric energy (or “long waves”) and even increasing number of stratospheric clouds in the winter don’t get any press. But hey, blame industrial man (i.e., America) first! (Note: cute NASA animation here.)

Speaking of cosmic forces and earthly climate, it turns out that dust from a recent meteoroid explosion is 1,000 times larger than expected — large enough to affect the weather:

Researchers warn this could contribute to climate change, as dust particles can reflect sunlight, promote cloud formation and even cause ozone depletion.

Meanwhile, scientists are at a loss to explain why the hottest spot on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is at the south pole, nor why it is hotter than the hottest temperature they expected to find at the equator. Possible theories include decaying radioactive material below the moon’s surface or perhaps gravitational tides but “neither theory adequately explains the heat” emanating from the fissured area of the moon. If it turns out that the heat is caused by volcanic activity then Enceladus joins the very exclusive club of active moons in the solar system; at present only Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s Triton are known to be active.

That women experience more pain than men has been established fact for some time, but now scientists think they know why: sex hormones. Studies of sex-change patients has shown that 30% of men who have been given oestrogen and anti-androgens report developing pain during their treatment (predictably, this is usually in the form of chronic headaches — thus all the “not tonight Dear, I’ve got a headache” jokes are indeed based on fact!). In another study, over half of women that were given testosterone reported a decrease in their aches and pains. According to one researcher, “They seemed to feel better generally.” Yet another reason to only have men in the workplace [just kidding!].

Remember your mother saying, “Don’t make that face or it’ll freeze that way!”? Here’s what she should have said: “Don’t daydream or your brain will freeze that way!”

The parts of the brain that young, healthy people use when daydreaming are the same areas that fail in people who have Alzheimer’s disease.

And the way people use their brains could actually lead to Alzheimer’s disease. …

“The regions of the brain we tend to use in our default state when we are young are very similar to the regions where plaques form in older people with Alzheimer’s disease,” Professor Buckner said.

So much for all those sex therapists that tell you to have a rich fantasy life. Or is that daydreaming?

A group of Portuguese scientists went looking for allergies to genetically modified foods but didn’t find any. So how long before the EU gives up its ridiculous ban on GM foods? My guess is for as long as Africans continue to die because of it.

Scientists at the University of Illinois have proved that the Earth’s core is rotating faster than the rest of the planet, gaining between .3 and .5 degrees every day. That means it makes one extra revolution every 700 to 1200 years. That has to be interesting to someone, somewhere, I reckon.

Scientists in India have unveiled what they claim to be the world’s safest nuclear reactor:

India unveiled before the international community Thursday its revolutionary design of ‘A Thorium Breeder Reactor’ that can produce 600 MW of electricity for two years ‘with no refuelling and practically no control manoeuvres.’ …

Most significantly for India, ATBR does not require natural or enriched uranium which the country is finding difficult to import. It uses thorium — which India has in plenty — and only requires plutonium as ‘seed’ to ignite the reactor core initially.

Small surveillance unmanned aircraft are being developed with shape-shifting wings inspired by seagulls. The articulated wings can change from an “M” shape to a “W” shape, making the craft highly maneuverable (prototypes have executed three continuous 360° rolls in one second — an F-16 can do only one per second). (Crude video of test flights here — 17MB.)

Speaking of aircraft, the Pentagon is another step closer to putting a laser in theirs. The High Energy Laser Area Defence System (HELLADS), scheduled for deployment in 2007, is about the size of a refrigerator, weighs just 750 kg (1,675 lbs) and will be capable of knocking a missile out of the sky. [Just 750 kg! Can't be long until I get my light saber!]

Asthma sufferers should avoid stress, as research has linked emotions and asthma.

A group of scientists is predicting that artificial wombs could be a reality within twenty years, allowing premature babies to be nurtured to full term or even allow otherwise-childless couples to grow kids without a mother’s touch at all. This, of course, is already setting of debates of ethics and morality. Besides the question of “manufactured children” and babies grown by gay couples or the wealthy (“too posh to push” — heh!), there’s this:

But Richard Ashcroft, reader in medical ethics at Imperial College London, fears a “foetal rescue act” to force drug or alcohol-addicted mothers to have their foetuses surgically removed. “I couldn’t think of anything worse,” he said.

Ah yes, better to have irresponsible women kill their kids “naturally”.