Studying for my comprehensive exams...
Preparing my dissertation proposal...
Collecting data...
Posted on 03/18/2008 12:41:27 PM PDT by avg_freeper
According to a pioneering study by a Czech Republic scientist, beer is bad for science because the inebriating effects of beer lower creativity in scientific research. Could this problem be carried over to college students and the general population?
Behavioral ecologist Tomáš Grim, of the Department of Zoology at Palacký University (Olomouc, Czech Republic) wrote the 2008 paper, “A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists.”
It appears in the Oikos, the journal of The Nordic Ecological Society.
Grim, like all scientists, knew that the number of scientific papers produced each year is a major way that scientists are evaluated in the scientific community.
However, he also knew that very few, if no, studies have considered social activities on the quantity of such papers.
Grim states in New Scientist magazine, “Despite a plethora of papers on the issue of publication and citation biases, no study has so far considered a possible effect of social activities on publication output.” [New Scientist, March 8-14, 2008, page 56]
Thus, to introduce his paper, Grim states, “One of the most frequent social activities in the world is drinking alcohol.” In Europe, according to the World Health Organization, most of the alcohol consumed is beer.
Grim already knew about this statistic, so decided to use beer as the basis of this hypothesis.
Considering that cognitive performance is usually degraded (aka: we don’t think quite as clearly) as more alcohol is consumed, Grim hypothesized before his study began that there will be a negative correlation between beer consumption and scientific performance (quantity and quality of scientific papers produced).
[Authors’ note: I agree that this is a very reasonable assumption to make! Cheers!]
In other words, as more [less] beer is drunk, less [more] quantity of papers are produced and of those papers produced, they will be of lesser [greater] quality.
Grim used a survey (which was conducted starting in 1980) from the Czech Republic that involved avian ecologists.
He used such a survey probably because the country, as he states, has the “highest per capita beer consumption rate in the world.”
In fact, citizens of the Czech Republic drink on average 332 pints (157 liters) or about 5,309 fluid ounces (about 442 twelve-ounce cans) of beer each year. [The Daily Telegraph: “Why beer harms science”]
From the data on the survey, Grim’s results found that increased beer drinking does lead to lower measurements in the quantity and quality of papers produced.
Specifically, he found higher beer consumption produced lower quantity in the numbers of papers produced.
Grim also found lower quality in the papers that were produced; specifically, the papers that were produced contained lower number of total citations and lower numbers of citations per paper.
In fact, in part of his study, Grim used two different physical locations within the Czech Republic, whcih had distinct differences in the rates of beer consumption.
The area with the higher rates of beer drinking had less quality and quantity of scientific papers when compared with the area with lower rates of beer consumption.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Grim received many positive responses from thirty scientists around the world.
In fact, one letter stated, “I find your study fascinating because it is so rare to see anyone willing to analyze what probably has the greatest impact on research results: ourselves and our own behavior as researchers. I hope to see more studies like this in the future." [The Daily Telegraph: “Why beer harms science”]
The validity of this study probably carries over from scientists to college students and the general population. Grim hopes his study will be picked up so that it will be conducted in other countries.
Are there any beer-drinking scientists out there who wish to participate?
Bad for science...but great for Literature.
Look at all the drunken authors.
Alcohol can be a great stimulant to creativity, concentration and, uh, .......wuh, .........yeah.......memory..........
Maybe but beer does way more positive than negative. For instance my standards for women go down after a few thus more opportunity to get laid.
Studying for my comprehensive exams...
Preparing my dissertation proposal...
Collecting data...
mmmmm beer
If I qualify for a Pell Grant, can I attend this center of higher learning? Hell, if this is a law school, I could claim to be working on a case.
This guy is certainly Grim...
Make your comments LOL!
This must be why Muslim countries are so advanced to our primitive western civilization.
The thrust is correct but the explanation is simplistic and wrong. Drinking is a proxy for dominant social values and outlook. Depending on those, science may be held in high or lower regard. In the former Soviet Union, physicists were held in great esteem by the general public. I hear that it is all but gone now: the euro and nationalism has replaced physicists. Values change over time.
But any good scientist knows that correlation is not causation.
Don't need no Pell Grant.
Just some Piel's Pounders!
That’s what I’m talking about!
beer makes me smart, so this is pure BS.
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