Name that paper…
| 5 August, 2011 | Richard P. Grant |
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First up, congratulations to Blake Stacey for winning the Name that drug competition. Blake, let me have a mailing address and I’ll put the swag in the post.
For this week’s dose of Friday fun, what’s the cleverest or funniest article title you’ve come across? Ian has suggested this 2011 article from Lester Lau of the University of Illinois at Chicago, which must surely win the F1000 “Best ever journal article title based on libretti form comic operas” award,
CCN1/CYR61: the very model of a modern matricellular protein
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00018-011-0778-3).
Where does he find them?
Anyway, please share your favourites. I’ll see what swag I can rustle up for the best.
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I’m rather proud of a couple of mine:
“Male adaptive stupidity: male mating pattern in hybridogenetic frogs” and
“The anarchist’s guide to ecological theory. Or, we don’t need no stinkin’ laws”. I was mildly surprised they were both allowed by the editors.
If I win, it means nobody else is trying hard enough.
Gonna have to go with “A control system for a flexible spine belly-dancing humanoid”
PubMed PMID: 16393451
Two favorites from the Earth Sciences:
“United Plates of America, the birth of a craton – Early proterozoic assembly and growth of Laurentia”
“Seafood through time: changes in biomass, energetics, and productivity in the marine ecosystem”
Can I make a suggestion in a subcategory: best comment in an acknowledgements section?
from “Cats as an Aid to Teaching Genetics ” by Alan Christensen Genetics, 155: 999-1004, July 2000
“Larry Harshman, John Osterman, Aleata Triplett, Patricia Pukkila, and two anonymous reviewers made helpful comments on the manuscript. Tony Joern did not. “
ah ahahah! Keep ’em coming, folks. Dave, that comment is *awesome*.
Astrophysicists often discuss what happens when a white dwarf falls into a black hole. Can’t find the original reference.
One of my favourites is still Bob O’Hara’s
“The anarchist’s guide to ecological theory. Or, we don’t need no
stinkin’ laws”
OIKOS 110:2 (2005)
Oh… very well done… I’ve just seen that my suggestion has already been added by the author himself… ha, ha, great!
I would also be rather proud of having such a title published.
Great titles, everybody!
(Should I send my postal address through e-mail, Twitter direct message or something like that?)
“All’s Well That Ends Well – Shakespeare’s Treatment of Anal Fistula”
PMID 9678380
“Accidental Hanging by a T-Shirt Collar in a Man With Morphine Intoxication: (An Unusual Case)”
PMID 21464693
and:
“The Royal Society and the decline of magic”
PMID 21797146
Oh wait, forgot this classic:
“Pressures produced when penguins pooh—calculations on avian
defaecation”
DOI 10.1007/s00300-003-0563-3
I remembered a couple more over the weekend:
Besag, J. (1986) On the statistical analysis of dirty pictures. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B48: 259-302. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2345426]
and
Warton, David I., and Francis K. C. Hui. 2011. The arcsine is asinine: the analysis of proportions in ecology. Ecology 92: 3–10. [doi:10.1890/10-0340.1]
Deborah – thanks for your vote! The secret is to be sure that the editor has a sense of humour.
Rogers, L (2003) Odds-playing and the timing of sex change in uncertain environments: you bet your wrasse. Behav Ecol 14:447-450
And for acknowledgements
“…JL is assisted by Heavy Medication plc.” in
Fowler, MS & Lindstrom J (2002) Extinctions in simple and complex communities. OIKOS 99: 511–517
There are multiple papers that have “ROCK ‘n’ Rho” or “Rac ‘n’ Rho” in the title.
“Snails, Swiss, and serum: the solution for Rac ‘n’ Rho.”
PMID: 15055577
“Rac ‘n Rho: the music that shapes a developing embryo.”
PMID: 11702944
“Rock ‘n’ Rho: regulation of ion channels”
doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00185.2009
“Cytokinesis and cancer: Polo loves ROCK’n’ Rho(A).”
PMID: 20347825
(and I’m sure I have another one somewhere)
It’s becoming an obvious joke, but it’s at least NOT as overdone as “Of Mice and Men”. (Do a Google search for “Of Mice and Men” together with “Medline” or something else to identify biology papers)
Yeah, the Rho jokes are a bit lame and obvious.
BioScienceMum, that’s a huge *groan*. Acknowledgements is another rich source of funnies–perhaps I’ll start that thread tomorrow.
The wrasse one is my favourite so far. Also because wrasse are cool.
Has anyone studied the Ras pathway in wrasse? Major potential for wordplay right there.