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Testimonials: selected responses to our research

Mann and Helbing. Optimal incentives for collective intelligence. PNAS 2017

Creation Evolution Headlines (http://crev.info/2017/05/abusing-science-advance-wickedness/​)

'Have some secular scientists become the new priests of Baal?'
'Perhaps that is better than torture...'

Reid et al. Decision-making without a brain: how an amoeboid organism solves the two-armed bandit. J. R. Soc. Interface 2016

By Email
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Philip Benjamin  
ABSURD, ABSURD,ABSURD, ABSURD, ABSURD, ABSURD. 
There is nothing Royal or Societal here. It is a purely "academedia" paper with a "trans-speciation" agenda.

Strömbom et al. Solving the shepherding problem: heuristics for herding autonomous, interacting agents. J R Soc Interface 2014

The Guardian

MrComplexity
Crowd control .... ? Ah the simple-brained academics again, missing the obvious reality - sheep don't attack sheep dogs!

Whereas a crowd could disable the robot in many ways. Even when tanks have been used to 'herd' crowds (as in the 'Prague Spring') people do not just react passively and say baaaaa.

Still, the academics will no doubt be given lots of money by security services to research the blindingly obvious ... what an easy life!


Daily Mail

TheAchiever, Somewhere, Antarctica
Do these people actually get paid to conduct pointless and meaningless studies like the one reported?

F.Heinemann, London
seriously.....

Mann et al. Landscape complexity influences route-memory formation in navigating pigeons, Biology Letters 2014

Daily Mail

PROUD Englishman, Stratford East London, United Kingdom
use hedges to navigate ----------------- RUBBISH, what if the hedges were removed? Utter poppycock. Birds navigate via the earth's magnetic field - they ALWAYS have done

Pete, Pontefract, United Kingdom
What a load of rubbish, my granddad sent many a pigeon to France and they all came back. No hedges over the North sea.

jimonline, Chippenham, United Kingdom
What a waste of scientist talent, that's if these jokers have any. Are they trying to un-invent GPS? Shooting sportspeople have always known these facts about the flight-lines of pigeon and other birds such as corvids. Birds fly along this hedge to that sitty-tree or cross that field to the one with laid corn and so on. What use is this this knowledge going to be to anyone else? Certainly it is one way of achieving a comfortable living by our superfluous scientists though.

Daily Telegraph

@gimmegadgetsuk
Thought it was April 1st for a minute.

Sasaki et al. Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy. PNAS 2013

The Atlantic

Hominid  Guest 
This study tells us a little (very little, actually) about ant behavior and nothing at all about human behavior. It's junk science and reported in such a way that the lo-info types (majority of people) will take it seriously.


Mann et al. The dynamics of audience applause. J R Soc Interface 2013

BBC
Jonny Browne
Oh for pity's sake, anyone who's been to a couple of concerts or football matches could have told them that crowd behaviour is infectious - I'm glad it's not UK public funds wasted on yet another "scientific study" that states the blindingly obvious.

Miles
Fantastic bit of cutting edge research. I suggest the authors look up the word ‘Claque’. Please keep us informed, BBC. Next one: researchers find we get wet when it rains.

yorkie
What idiot dreamed up this study. Get a life and study something that will benefit the country

ColadadelCid
Did it take public money to fund this ludicrous research? Next time scientists ought to investigate how many sheets to toilet paper it takes for the average person to wipe clean their behind starting with the scientists.


NPR

Carole L
The Science of Applause? Surely, there is a better way for educated people to spend their time.

Sherman Greene 
Of all the pseudo-social science stories I've ever heard, this is one of the stupidest & silliest.

Twitter

‏@PeterBriggs419
@richardpmann Your applause research... I could have told you that a long time ago. Why didn't I? Because it's not important.

‏@FionaMaddocks19 
So clapping is 'contagious'? And someone actually paid for this research? #TodayProgramme

Daily Mail

-Silver Godess , England
Rubbish!

- USA , California, United States, 19/6/2013 23:30
Didn't need a scientific study to figure that out.

Guardian
showmaster
Jeezus, after 3000 years of show folk starting off audience applause the young intellectuals have caught up.

Trust nobody paid for this waste of time and effort.

PatMurray

Monkeys do this all the time, so this useless piece of research will help to prove Darwin's theory to those who still don't accept it. Apart from that, how much has it cost the taxpayer?

Hebert-Read et al. Inferring the rules of interaction of shoaling fish, PNAS 2011

Sydney Morning Herald

the cynic of Aus
"actively changed their speed in order to avoid or move towards neighbours" . Like us we don't want to bump into each other. So how else can they avoid doing so without someone yielding or speeding up? Doh! They wasted time and money to find out the reason must have been a slow day in the Lab.


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