Sleep is for chelonians

Placebo blog post

I was going to write a proper blog post, giving in to the recent influx of demands from my audience of three (well, I know of at least three vocal members -- who knows how many more are lurking in the silent faceless mass?).

Then I came across this NHS-sponsored video of doctor and Grauniad columnist extraordinaire Ben Goldacre, MD, explaining the wonders and implications of the placebo effect. There's nothing I could say that could top it in terms of clarity and public interest, so I'll bow out for now and leave the stage to my betters. Ben, take it away.

Refreshing undiluted sarcasm

Hat tip to Pharyngula

Land of the pyjama people

My new workplace is situated at the heart of Longwood Medical Area (LMA), a one square kilometer (or 231 acres in the prehistoric unit system in use here) zone densely packed with hospitals, medical schools and research centers.

The side-effect of that is that at any time of the day there are flocks of medical doctors, students, nurses and technicians milling about, taking a lunch break, visiting a colleague in a nearby building or what have you. And many of these people do so in their hospital scrubs, that is, in their blue or pink "pyjamas", which I believe are color-coded to indicate function (I think green is reserved for the operating theater, which would explain why I haven't seen any outdoors).

Never mind how debatable that might be as regards basic hygiene; I can sort of understand that people wouldn't want to have to get changed every time they want to pop out for a smoke, a coffee or a bagel. But some of them actually commute to and from work in their hospital pyjamas. The train I take to work is frequently populated by LMA people, and I see at least one or two pyjama people per day on it, whatever the hours. That's just...not right.

The good news is you don't see researchers walking around in lab coats. Even if people wanted to do that, it's strictly against the rules. Even in the indoors cafeteria in our building, lab coats are banned. A most excellent rule, for sure.