Jason's Log

Mobile phones and sleep: Reading the original research

On Slashdot.org today there was an article posted about a study relating exposure to mobile phone radio frequency radiation (GSM RF). Because I am a person who sleeps with his phone sitting on the night stand directly adjacent to my bed, I thought it might be useful to read the original research article. Following the link from Slashdot to the PIERS Online abstract, I was able to download and view the full PDF of the research paper using the link provided.

What a complete disappointment.

To their credit, the authors of the article use the right keywords for a study of this type: double blind, statistically significant, sham versus non-sham groups. The 'Method' section is decent but lacks the amount of detail that would be required if you wanted to try and reproduce their results. Worse yet is the 'Results' section, which is only two short paragraphs. They do state some of their statistical measures, but there is not a single chart (with +/- error bars), and no table of actual result data.

On the plus side there is the sponsorship declaration - The Mobile Phone Manufacturers Forum - which was nice of them to include.

My background in the life sciences and the years spent reading research articles from prestiguous journals (Science, Nature, PNAS) tells me that this paper would have been dismissed with roars of laughter from any peer-reviewed scientific journal. The omissions of actual data and statistical measures is completely inexcusable. Although it seems to be a well executed study, there is no way to assess the quality of the results based on the paper that was published.

Will I continue to leave my mobile powered on next to my bed each night? Probably. I only wish this paper included enough detail to allow me to really judge the trustworthiness of the results and their findings.

The price of original research just went down a bit

In my previous post about having to pay twice for access to research articles, I was lamenting the fact that National Institutes of Health funded research was being funded by my federal tax dollars. The results of that research were then published exclusively in very expensive scientific journals. Although ordering reprints is possible - for $8 to $32 - I had long been a supporter of 'open access' to publicly funded research.

It now looks like that has become a reality! With the recent passage of the Appropriations Act of 2007, the NIH's mandate includes a provision requiring open access to the results of NIH-funded research. This is a very, very good thing for the free flow of scientific information and transmission of knowledge. More information on this can be found in this Eureka.org article as well as in the actual federal bill that was passed.

The price of original research

I recently finished reding Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and was motivated to read one of the original journal articles cited in the book. This particular research article looked to have taken a creative approach to determining whether the direct neurvous-system mediated insulin response (the release of insulin caused by the direct neural stimulation of the pancreatic islet cells, also called the 'cephalic phase insulin response' or CPIR) was physiologically important.

A quick googling of the title led me to the American Journal of Physiology website, which offered PDF reprints of their articles. After selecting the correct entry ("Oral sensory stimulation in men: effects on insulin, C-peptide, and catecholamines" by Teff et al.) and adding it to my shopping cart, I learned that one year of access to the PDF file would cost me USD 8.00.

Knowing that this research was originally funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Affairs research office, I was somewhat irked by having to pay again to access the material. I do pay my federal incomes taxes, after all. I guess I should be happy this was not an Elsevier Journal - the last time I checked they were charging USD 32.00 for PDF reprints. Ouch!

Tracy Hickman's "The Immortals"

While waiting for my upset stomach to fade away this evening, I listened to the last few chapters of The Immortals by Tracy Hickman. Although I never felt hugely entheusiastic about the lead characters - which is normally required in order for me to enjoy a book - there are definitely some inspiring moments within. Amanda's death and funeral procession was especially well done.

It reminded me in many ways of Night by Elie Wiesel, only set in the future instead of the past. Despite recent erosions to some US civil liberties, I definitely doubt that America will ever see internment camps of any kind on its soil again. But it probably doesn't hurt to remind ourselves of what it might be like every now and then.

Why does Blue Shield of California have an 'Installation' Group?

Now that I've started getting ready for my switch to full-time self employment starting in 2008, I have had to purchase private health insurance. While surprisingly affordable for healthy men with no chronic disease conditions, the 'From' information on my Blue Shield of California welcome kit was disturbing:

Blue Shield of California
Installation and Membership - Group

What does 'installation' have to do with this? At first I thought that perhaps there was some sort of software that I would have to 'install' in order to complete the signup process, but that does not appear to be the case.

Very strange.