Academic press offices are known to overhype their own research. But the University of Maryland recently took this to appalling new heights trumpeting an incredibly shoddy study on chocolate milk and concussions that happened to benefit a corporate partner.
It's a cautionary tale of just how badly science can go awry as universities increasingly partner with corporations to conduct research.
The story started when the University of Maryland issued a press release about a new study on the effects of a single brand of chocolate milk on cognitive and motor skill tests in high school athletes.
The scientists had found that drinking the milk appeared to improve the kids' test scores and reduce concussion-related symptoms.
The first problem here is that the research itself is breathtakingly suspect. There was no comparison group or treatment in the study. The scientists didn't even test another brand of chocolate milk. They only looked at a Fifth Quarter Fresh, which its maker claims comes from "super, natural cows."
As it turns out, the maker of Fifth Quarter Fresh chocolate milk which comes from a dairy cooperative in Hagerstown, Maryland funded 10 percent of the study, and the university funded the rest.
So here we have a milk manufacturer working in partnership with the University of Maryland to fund a sloppy study, and the university then blasts the results, persuading schools and the press that this milk works wonders on students' brains.
It's everything wrong with modern-day science-by-press-release in one anecdote.
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/16/10777050/university-of-maryland-chocolate-milk
That is brazen. On another note, brazen does not look like a real word to me when type it out