the error bar
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Open Science and Its Enemies, Part III: The progressives
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
OPEN SCIENCE & ITS ENEMIES, PART III: The Progressives in this episode i conclude my critique of - some parts of - the open science movement by f...
Open Science and its Enemies. Part II: The populists
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
in this episode i continue discussing some problems in the open science movement. i focus on populist podcasters and the promotion of simplistic heuri...
Open Science and its Enemies. Part I: The p-circlers
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's no brain news this month, but i take this unique opportunity to provide the first of my three part critique of - some parts of - the Open ...
JUST DIE ALREADY
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
in this episode we find out how motivational talk makes you run faster & i ponder on the history of science & the death of ideas long, long af...
YOUR SAMPLE IS SMALL
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
my name's nick holmes and THIS is the error bar: a podcast about brain science & statistics that's nothing like any other podcast about br...
DON'T LOOK BACK
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
my name's nick holmes and THIS is the error bar, where no drinks are served, which has only one song on the jukebox & one programme on the telly: the ...
SEASON THREE PREVIEW
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
my name's nick holmes and THIS is the error bar, a podcast by a middle age man who likes statistics, FOR middle aged men who like statistics. keyw...
BIAS, FATIGUE, FRAUD? TAKE A HIKE
11 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how learning to play the piano improves perception, why the brain needs a break, image manipulation & the wonder of winter walking. keywords: bias...
EYES WIDE SHUT
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how different people see the world of colour differently, the study of love that triggered a studied hate & the annual review of the error bar's e...
EMOTIONAL FISH FOOD
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how the largest part of the brain gets emotional, why older adults don't get emotion, how goldfish can swim 70cm for food & FREE ENERGY forever! k...
THE SHAVING FOAM FIRE HOSE OF BRAIN NEWS
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how the mouse eye tells the mouse brain that a mouse is scratching itself, how dogs are everywhere & the two scientific cultures of simplifiers &a...
CLIMBING MOUNT THETA
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how to massively improve your memory in old age after just a few hours, why scientists won't change their mind, & how the brain is not made of lig...
HOLDING PATTERN
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
bringing you the brain science news before it happens. or sometimes a long, long time afterwards. & sometimes it's not really news at all. more op...
BIG, WRONG AND BORING
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
the biggest brain scanning study ever, how the error bar was wrong, how magnetically stimulating the head is distracting & some vaguely-interestin...
IS IT BIG ENOUGH?
26 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how the visual brain controls blind people's feet, & how every single brain scanning study ever done needed thousands more participants to be reli...
FINDING THE CLITORIS
13 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how to find the clitoris, how COVID shrinks some very important parts of the brain & the Canadian brain disease that isn't. still. keywords: clito...
FLATTENING THE CURVE
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how your brain is just as good at age 60 as age 30, the neural correlates of near death experience & the most interesting questions in the whole o...
THE FACETIME ILLUSION
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how your brain lives in the past, the virus causing multiple sclerosis, consciousness explained three times, the scanner that talks scots & a news...
2021: A YEAR IN ERROR
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
how rocket scientists & brain surgeons are just as clever as you, how to publish anything in medical journals, how music affects the brain & 2...
POO, VOMIT, WIND
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how smelling bodily odour stops men from killing & makes women warriors, how alcoholic binges shrink your brain & the wind farms that make you...
TIME FOR A HUG
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how long to hug someone for, how to make many labs make the right work, an update on Canada's mysterious brain disease, & three neuroscientists pa...
TOOLS IN THE BRAIN: THE FIRST 25 YEARS
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
on the 25th anniversary of an influential neuroscience paper, the error bar talks to Drs Marie Martel & Luke Miller about how using tools changes ...
DARWINIAN OVULATION
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how women are more creative when ovulating, how to treat autism, and the error bar receives a rebuttal. keywords: ovulation Darwin autism therapy ball...
SONGS AND GONGS
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the neuroscience of birdsong, Nobel gongs for sensory neuroscientists, the corporate world of brain-hacking and the neuroscience universe loses three ...
HAVANA SYNDROME
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the microwaves in cuba that cook spies' brains & make them hear things, dogs hearing their owners' voices in brain scanners & consciousness ex...
DO CHICKENS SEE GREEN STARS? NERDY BONUS
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
discussing the claim there are no green stars, astrophysicist Dr Ulrike Kuchner & psychophysicist Dr Christopher Taylor describe green valleys fla...
A JOURNAL FOR TRIAL AND ERROR
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the error bar talks to Valentine Delrue & Sean Devine, editors at The Journal of Trial and Error (JOTE; https://www.jtrialerror.com/), a journal w...
RABBIT HOLES AND P-VALUES
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
as silly season (or cucumber time) continues, newspapers & science websites re-hash stories told decades ago, making more of the same errors, abou...
SILLY SEASON
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how mirror neurons and physics can explain everything about the human brain, the correct way to eat chocolate biscuits & the error bar takes a bre...
LOSING CONFIDENCE
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how scientists lose confidence in their own work, the mega corporations who infiltrate our dreams & music to listen to in the gym after work. keyw...
THE ECHOLOCATION CHAMBER
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
can humans learn to echolocate? the hostile media effect, the spread of fake news on twitter, & whether brain chemicals predict mathematics educat...
HAND, FOOT, MOUTH, BALLS
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how the visual brain processes hands & cutlery, the worst study ever, mirror neurons, alcohol, zombies & the amazing Jane Goodall. keywords: h...
THE RUBBER HAND DELUSION: NERDY BONUS
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode #10 was edited-down from around 2 hours of raw conversation with Dr Peter Lush from the University of Sussex UK, and Dr Regine Zopf from Macqu...
THE RUBBER HAND DELUSION
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Peter Lush from the University of Sussex, UK & Dr Regine Zopf from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia discuss a recent controversy about r...
MISINFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the psychology of misinformation, what we can do to fight fake news & neuromyths, brain size, a new brain disease in Canada & dementia - again...
BRAIN GROOVOLUTION
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
explaining how the human brain evolved & develops, the sensitivity of our fingertip nerves, dementia, Elon Musk, horses, inflammation, shamanism &...
SEX, CRIME & DRUGS: THE SIN EPISODE
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the brain differences between men & women, how neuroscience can reduce murders, why adults drink wine and why children shouldn't eat sugar. keywor...
THE ERROR BAR: A TRAILER
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
welcome to the error bar, where neuroscience meets uncertainty. the error bar is a podcast about brain science news, error, confusion, uncertainty, an...
OF CUTTLEFISH AND MEN
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
are cuttlefish better at delaying rewards than crows & kids? neuroscience manipulation, bullying & failure, and the millions in prize money fo...
DO CHICKENS SEE GREEN STARS?
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
discussing the claim that there are no green stars, astrophysicist Dr Ulrike Kuchner from the University of Nottingham & psychophysicist Dr Christ...
EXTREME DREAM ARGUMENTS
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how your brain does maths while you dream, the brain differences between agreeing & disagreeing with someone & why extreme opinions slow down ...
THE BRAIN: A L❤VE STORY
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how social media posts betray relationship breakdown, how lonely brains are different, and the quest for the brain's beauty centre. keywords: breakups...
ELECTROCOMPULSIVE THERAPY
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
how electrocuting the face & brain reduces obsessive behaviour, how nose-pumping helps with sleep hygiene, & the monkeys who'll swap your ipho...
GREEN PATHS TO BRAIN HEALTH
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
the vegetables and vitamins that stop cognitive decline and parkinson's, how city life slows you down, and the continuing failure of computers to be l...
CANNABIS BURGERS FOR DEMENITA
01 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
[this is a pilot episode, recorded in April 2020, under Covid-19 lockdown and before purchasing a decent microphone.] why cannabis doesn't make you in...