Wow, fish really is brain food!
By Thoreau
A researcher at my alma mater detected brain activity in a dead salmon. Insert undergrad joke here.*
The point was that this activity was some sort of artifact in the data, and it was presented as evidence for the need to develop better statistical methods to deal with it. (Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything about the data analysis in that field.) However, I am curious whether he got approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee before experimenting on the dead fish. Was the fish killed humanely? Was it handled properly? Did they make sure to not over-season it?
*I tell undergrad jokes when the subject is the place where I got my Ph.D. I tell administrator jokes when the subject is the place where I teach. And I tell jokes about professors and TAs when the subject is the place where I got my Bachelor’s degree.
Comment by Glaivester —
September 19, 2009 @ 9:50 am
The point was that this activity was some sort of artifact in the data,
Obviously, someone is covering up the discovery of zombie salmon.
Comment by Barry —
September 19, 2009 @ 10:05 am
PZ Myers described his method of euthanizing fish. IIRC, he put them in a solution of 96% fresh water and 4% ethanol. The fish didn’t seem to mind.
Comment by D.A. Ridgely —
September 19, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
Worse yet, new reports indicate that researchers were also “air-boarding” the salmon for information regarding where best to hunt, er, fish for their acquatic colleagues. Needless to say, whether reliable or not, the information thus gathered is considered quite fishy.
Comment by D.A. Ridgely —
September 19, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
Er, “aquatic.” As usual, my spelling and such is pretty fishy, too.