In the Atlantic Monthly

In the November Atlantic Monthly the cover story is on 19 brave thinkers for 2010. The first of these is Dr. John Ioannidis, a Harvard-trained physician epidemiologist, who chairs the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the University of Ioannina, Greece. He is probably most famous for a paper he published in 2005, Why Most Published Research Findings are False. The paper has been downloaded nearly 300,000 times. He believes that 80% of non-randomized studies have incorrect conclusions, as do up to 25% of randomized trials. The Atlantic's profile of Ioannidis can be viewed here.

In the same issue, there's also a piece on the demise of the wristwatch. I haven't worn a wristwatch since I embraced bare below the elbows 2 years ago. Losing the watch was a sacrifice for the sake of infection prevention, but I have to admit I don't miss it at all. According to the article, watchmakers are developing apps for mechanical watches (called complications) to try to maintain consumer's interest in them, but the author predicts that watches will go the way of the sundial.