Let's Learn Everything!

What are the flaws in scientific publishing, who's responsible, and how can we fix it?

ALSO SEE US LIVE IN LONDON!!! LETSLEARNEVERYTHING.COM/LIVE

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:02:47) Scientific Publishing Part I

(00:35:57) Scientific Publishing Part II

(01:13:07) Outro

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We also learn about: We almost do the same grim joke, the live show will have 50% more hosts than this, before publications there were societies and books and letters, in 1665 a Henry Oldenburg of the royal society starts “Philosophical Transactions”, the longest continuous journal (ignoring the time Olderburg was put in a tower for criticizing the king), the discovery of Jupiter’s red spot and also a deformed calf, Newton’s Optics was published in Philosophical Transactions first, Science has bad SEO, the doubling time of papers is 14 years since the 1950s, Ella’s peer review process, errors can be missed and biases affected, not paying reviewers is a bug that’s labelled as a feature, government funded research can still be privately owned, we’ve all agreed “processing fee” just means bullshit, there’s some things I don’t want to be “fun”, Elsevier has a 38% profit margin while Alphabet’s is 32%, editorial resignations in protest, I’m excited to add Robert Maxwell to my Arya Stark list of people, Maxwell died on his yes-that-Ghislaine-Maxwell Yacht, the scheme to buyout scientists for their papers, cover upfront costs - own copyright - flood with new journals - reap the subscription costs, “jesus wept”, retractions are growing by about 20% each year, I’m buying Ella a dictionary so she can learn what “fun” means, fool me 239 time shame on me, paper mills, predatory journals are pay to win, the Chinese restaurant metaphor keeps staying accurate, no it’s not nature our journal is nurture, is this finally rock bottom? the public review curate model, the pros and cons of preprints, diamond open access, the nelson memo, “I think the Ghislaine Mawell death yacht is fun”.

Sources:
Royal Society: History of Scientific Journals
Royal Society: Philosophical Transactions The Early Years
Royal Society: Philosophical Transactions Issue 1
University College London: A History of Scientific Journals
Philosophical Transactions A: Newton Shows the Light
Royal Society Notes and Records: 350 Years of Scientific Periodicals
Broad Research Communication Lab: Peer Review - a Historical Perspective
Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications: Growth Rates of Modern Science
JSTOR: The History of Peer Review is More Interesting Than You Think
British Journal of Biomedical Science: The Peer Review Process: Past, Present, and Future
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine: Peer Review: A Flawed Process at the Heart of Science and Journals
The Conversation: Academic Publishing is a Multibillion Dollar Industry
New Scientists: Time to Break Academic Publishing’s Stranglehold on Research
The Lancet: Should Peer Reviewers Be Paid?
Guardian: Is the Staggeringly Profitable Business of Scientific Publishing Bad for Science? (Robert Maxwell Longread)
Research Professional News: Elsevier Profit
Guardian: George Monbiot on Academic Publishers
Retraction Watch: Statistics and Computing Resignation
Guardian: The Murky Life of Robert Maxwell
Journal of the Academy of Public Health: The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward
EBSCO Research: Publish or Perish Paradox
University of Technology Sydney: The ‘Publish or Perish’ Mentality is Undermining Science
Retraction Watch: COVID Retractions
Retraction Watch: Most Cited
Retraction Watch: Retractions by Nobel Prize Winners
Retraction Watch: Most Retractions
British Medical Journal: Boldt the Great Pretender
Nato Strategic Communication Centre: Disinformation and Scholarly Communications
The Conversation: Paper Mills
Toxicologic Pathology: Predatory Journals: What They Are and How to Avoid Them
The Lancet: Lessons From the Influx of Preprints During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic
The Conversation: Diamond Open Access
San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)

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We all thought quicksand would be a bigger deal than it is, but what is the science behind them and all the other worries I had as a kid? And how does pinball reflect the changing cultures of our time, and could now be the best era of pinball?

ALSO SEE US LIVE IN LONDON!!! LETSLEARNEVERYTHING.COM/LIVE

Things we Talk About:  

Bagatelle
Redgrave's Pinball
Humpty Dumpty
Beat Time
Lambeth & Sarceni's Amazing Pinball Talk at Magfest
David Barber's Magfest Pinball Panel
Technology Connection's Great Pinball Breakdown
PinballMap.com

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:06:22) Quicksand and Other Childhood Worries

(01:05:22) The Undying Game of Pinball

(01:55:32) Outro

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We also learn about: Ella’s spoon collection is much more important than our live show, the never ending story, quicksand was in 3% of in the 1960s, the problem with gen z is they’re not afraid of quicksand, quicksand is reverse oobleck (sheer-thinning), the settled sand at the bottom requires the force of lifting a car, quicksand is unfortunate physics circumstances burying you, 11th century quicksand art in the Bayeux Tapestry (also Haley’s comet), we’re less dense than quicksand so you’d float at your waist, you could listen to this podcast twice while hanging out in quicksand, Ella cried so much she couldn’t cross the piranha plank, piranha fear is President Roosevelt’s fault, you know you’re making fun of a ten year old child right now, my main takeaway was what a cogent president he was, piranhas reloading their teeth, piranhas have 10x the relative bite force to size of a crocodile, piranhas aren’t carnivores - they’re opportunistic omnivores and a skittish prey species, the cow just walking out of the piranhas, it’s like two truths and a lie but all three are true, ARE WE DOING SPIDERS GEORG, spiders have acute mechanoceptors, tarantulas aren’t just hairy for fun, debunking the Lisa Birgit Holst debunking, a 50 spiders salute for georg, Beans Britain is a statistical outlier and should not be counted, spiders georg as a stats teaching tool, spiders georg was NOT an outlier, the moment Tom and pinball fell in love, we’ve been throwing balls at pins since ancient Egypt, indoor parlor games were for the aristocracy, fixing the pins to the table with bagatelle, the depression sparked the start of pinball’s craze, evolving their legs back, truly pinball is what caused the depression, pinball was the avocado toast of the time, pinballs were literally turned into billy clubs and bullets, pinball was banned for 34 years in new york city, the historic humpty dumpty machine first gave us flippers in 1947, pinball was cooler than porn, the bootles, it’s games sex and games AGAIN - but this time it’s bad, Suzanne Ciani’s digital design for Xenon, guess the pinball cabinet from the sound, the sopranos’ profanity filter, NBA fastbreak isn’t a basketball themed pinball - you are playing basketball, Dave demonstrating a Tap Pass, pinball is the most open it’s ever been, finding cabinets is a somehow even nerdier version of birdwatching, oh nooo don’t send me pictures of pinball cabinets.

Sources:
2021 Fibromyalgia Acupuncture Review
Wildland Trekking: Is Quicksand Real?
EBSCO: Non Newtonian Fluid
Wiki: Shear Thinning
Slate: The Rise and Fall of Quicksand
Getty: Bayeux Tapestry Quicksand Scene
BBC Future: Can Quicksand Suck You to Your Death?
Nature Comms: Liquefaction of Quicksand Under Stress
Europhysics News: Quicksand!
National Geographic: Quicksand 
Greater Cleveland Aquarium: How a President Propagated a Myth
Zootaxa: Molecular Systematics of Serrasalmidae
Nature Scientific Reports: Extreme Jaw Forces of Living and Extinct Piranhas 
University of Washington News: Piranha Fish Swap Old Teeth
Evolution and Development: Heterodonty and Dental Replacement in Piranhas
BBC: Piranha 'less deadly than feared'
Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment: Attacks on Humans by the Piranha Serrasalmus rhombeus in Suriname
The Harvard Gazette: Piranha Lab 
BBC: Do People Really Swallow Spiders in their Sleep
Snopes: Do People Swallow Eight Spiders Per Year?
Scientific American: Fact or Fiction? People Swallow 8 Spiders a Year While They Sleep |
Springer Nature: The Vibrational Sense of Spiders
Wiki: Fried Spider
r/HelloInternet Reddit: Lisa Birgit Holst Doesn't Exist 
Snopes: Lisa Birgit Holst
Tumblr: Spiders Georg
Wiki: Spiders Georg
Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics: View of How Many Spiders Would Spiders Georg Have To Eat? 
Medium: The Spiders Georg Problem

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Lambeth & Sarceni's Amazing Pinball Talk at Magfest
David Barber's Magfest Pinball Panel
Clive Thompson for Smithsonian Mag on Pinball
National Museum of American History on Pinball and Bagatelle
Montague Redgrave's Pinball Patent
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on Pinball and Gambling
Technology Connection's Great Pinball Breakdown
Suzanne Ciani's Audio Design for Xenon

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn

We've added a SECOND live show in London, and it's a Sunday matinee! See all the details at LetsLearnEverything.com/live

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn

Corry and Luke from the Sci Guys podcast join us, at last completing elaborate 4 year scheme to have them on! We learn about whether acupuncture is bullshit, and learn a bit more about That famous dolphin story. We also talk shop about mistakes, debunking, and curiosity!

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:10:51) Acupuncture

(00:32:27) THAT Dolphin Story

(00:54:20) Mistakes & Debunking

(01:21:10) Outro

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We also learn about: 

I’m biggly judging, the only thing I love more than science is a weird bit, Caroline’s 4 year plan to get in a zoom call with these bozos, kind of feels like you came to the top of the mountain and came down to meet us, Brian Cox does Not follow Tom, I know something that will fix Ella’s connection, the corry-luke scale, the peripheral nervous system, free opiod receptors, endogynous, different kind of needles for that opiod, fake accupuncture, treating sever hiccups, min-maxing heroin, it’s tricky to study pain, maybe therapy works more than accupuncture, by the way I don’t need you to share everything, dolphins weren’t so great at finding land mines, I’ll just leave some dead air, an open bar for editting, the sensory deprivation tank, you’re paying for this open bar Tom, I won’t tell you the name of the paper but I will tell you about lisa simpson, was really hoping the apartment would have a dolphinarium, now do your duolingo, this was all to communicate with aliens, Tom tries to have a teachable moment, well someone was certainly “arriving”, raising a chimp as a human, Bunny’s backlash, weird studies, language is complicated and we don’t even think about it so we underestimate it, did we not all read coco transcripts in college - oh i guess not, Corry’s corona mistake, double checking even when we know someone’s wrong, can you believe there are podcasts where people try to learn everything? a meta message not about being right but about science, QI’s mistake rate, the science debunking complex can get toxic, when we debunk it’s not with antagonism but curiosity, the mould effect saga, I think what you were trying to say correy is that it’s important to foster curiosity.

Sources:
Harvard Medical School, Science of Acupuncture
Review: Is Acupuncture Placebo?
Review: Acupuncture for Fibromyalgia Treatment
Guardian: NASA's Dolphin Project
Atlantic: Margaret Lovatt's Dolphin Experiment

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It's the Best of Everything! The episode where we look at the topics that YOU thought were our best from the past year, and chat some behind the scenes about them! It's a great place to start and a great time to brush up on things you may have forgotten.

Images we Talk About:  
Etching from the Great Moon Hoax
Bumble Bee Ocelli

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:03:51) The Vitamin Saga

(00:20:55) Why is the Sky Blue?

(00:33:19) Speech Disfluency

(00:53:11) The Great Moon Hoax of 1835

(01:09:07) Superheavy Elements II

(01:27:33) Eyevolution II

(01:45:17) Outro  

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We also learn about: 

You wouldn’t marry a husband, oh here comes the vitamin guy, you think we’ll still have history, you missed a spot, literally having to ask for extra time, we don’t learn like computers - relearning is normal, the I’ve just turned 30 pilgramage to Japan, I’ve ruined the algorithm, oh YAY, excited for marriages and reality fracture, 30 seconds of laughter.

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