Scientists' Success Or Failure Correlated With Beer

mernil sends in an article from the NYTimes that casts a glance at a study done in the Czech Republic (natch) on what divides the successful scientists from the duffers. "Ever since there have been scientists, there have been those who are wildly successful, publishing one well-received paper after another, and those who are not. And since nearly the same time, there have been scholars arguing over what makes the difference. What is it that turns one scientist into more of a Darwin and another into more of a dud? After years of argument over the roles of factors like genius, sex, and dumb luck, a new study shows that something entirely unexpected and considerably sudsier may be at play in determining the success or failure of scientists — beer."

teh goggles...

[User 956]

Scientists' Success Or Failure Correlated With Beer

Oddly enough, that finding carries over to Hookers, as well.

Living proof

[jrumney]

I've never published any peer reviewed papers, and I drink plenty of beer, so it must be true [burp].

Re:More fun; Better results!

[LinuxDon]

I really ought to read TFA more often. The reserve turns out to be true, didn't see that one coming..

Re:More fun; Better results!

[BadAnalogyGuy]

The reserve turns out to be true

Enjoying a little beer tonight, are we?

Re:Beer, is there anything it can't hurt?

[kyknos.org]

In Czech republic, beer is not a drink of lower classes at all. It is a national drink consumed by almost everyone, people from all classes, from the poor to the country's president. However, wine is popular in the southeast part of the country (Moravia), because it is a traditional wine region. May be, Moravians are mor intelligent than people from the other parts of the country? :) I do not know. But certainly they have more beautiful girls there :) May be more sex means better science :D

Re:teh goggles...

[space_in_your_face]

But it doesn't exactly apply to programmers [xkcd.com]...

Pfft.

[WK2]

In order to find out if beer is good or bad for scientists, I have to read the article?

Groan

[glwtta]

"It's rather devastating to be told we should drink less beer in order to increase our scientific performance," Dr. Symonds said.

Ok, this is perhaps the most widely disseminated scientific concept among the laity, so to see an "evolutionary biologist" cock it up so readily is pretty disheartening.

All together now: correlation does not imply causation!

ignobel.

[apodyopsis]

ahh. good to see that next years Ig-Nobels are already hotting up.

Re:what is cause and effect?

[TapeCutter]

I'll drink to that.

Re:what is cause and effect?

[adpsimpson]

Repeat after me:

Coroloshn...

Corrorro...

Corrorashnisnotcausashn.

There. I sssayed it.

:)

Tell that to Niels Bohr

[$RANDOMLUSER]

He had a house with a faucet that gave fresh beer - just next door to the Carlsberg brewery.

Re:Tell that to Niels Bohr

[damburger]

Yeah, and his model of the atom is incomplete. I blame the booze.

Re:teh goggles...

[SL Baur]

I like people who think. I think I'll have another beer.

Re:teh goggles...

[nguy]

Not so odd, since both science and prostitution are primarily about pleasing elderly men with deep pockets :-)

Optimal level

[zoeblade]

But what about the Ballmer Peak [xkcd.com]?

Re:WWFD?

[popmaker]

Hehe, ornithologists drinking beer are more likely to fall down from trees, and therefore less likely to produce scientific papers.

Re:Beer, is there anything it can't hurt?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

I like microwave pizza. Does that make me stupid?

I prefer not to answer that because it is well known that people like you are prone to violence due to your stunted intellect.

Re:what is cause and effect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps it was Dr. Dean Martin, whose Theory of Relativity stated "You're not too drunk if you can still hold onto the floor."

You probably had George Orwell (1946) in mind: "A man may take to drink because he feels himself a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks."

Re:teh goggles...

[antek9]

And I like people who say, let me buy you another beer.

Re:teh goggles...

[danaris]

Ale, man; ale's the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think!
Look into the pewter pot
To see the world as the world's not

Etc. Ah, Housman :-)

Dan Aris

Re:teh goggles...

[sm62704]

Scientists' Success Or Failure Correlated With Beer
Oddly enough, that finding carries over to Hookers, as well

But not Governors

Re:what is cause and effect?

[antek9]

Could you elaborate (in under 100 words, mind you) what kind of correlation you might have found between good music and Aerosmith? Or was that just a non sequitur for rhetoric effect?

Re:More fun; Better results!

[Himring]

He's talking about his back-up beer....

Re:Yay for statistics

[TeknoHog]

It's not that simple. You can't just compare the Danish møøse with the Canadian moose.

Re:Exactly

[New Here]

No, I'm New Here

Writing and Drinking

[airship]

That's why I'm a writer, not a scientist.

Almost all of the great writers were heavy drinkers.

Woo-Hoo!!

Re:Many problems with that study

[ceoyoyo]

The correct question is, what are the odds a pub will be within a couple blocks of your LAB.

There's a pub across the street from mine. That parking lot is awfully big though.

Buffalo Theory

[Xero_One]

As Cliff Clavin explained to Norm:

Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

Re:teh goggles...

[IdleTime]

Thank $DEITY I smoke weed!

Re:teh goggles...

[msheekhah]

it applies to your relatives... but on topic... as beer consumption increases, the scientist becomes increasingly philosophical... and thus, the drunken philosopher's song. EEEEEEmanual Kant was a real pisant... well I think you know the rest.