Free Association: Selfish factoids

Why do editors prune appealing afterthoughts and out of focus information to leave only the highly-scrutinized core of the research paper?, asks Myles Axton, Chief Editor of Nature Genetics, in the Free Association blog post above. ‘Appealing’ is the key word, that stuff has a life of its own and can literally beg you to add it to your papers. “Add me”, the factoid pleads, “and your work will make it into the news, will get discussed”.

Myles continues: Selfish factoids can even infect Matt Ridley, probably the most accessible and informative science writer alive. I enjoyed reading his “Origins of Virtue- Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation” but found this: Chapter 1, footnote 29. “I am indebted to David Haig for the information that human beings have B chromosomes at the rate of 2-3 per cent of live births.” Myles looked into this assertion, or to put it his way, performed a “reality check”. Read on at the Free Association post.