Skip to main content

Science confirms: parachutes do not save lives by jumping off a plane

Science confirms: parachutes do not save lives by jumping off a plane


Science has done it again.He has given us an unthinkable headline again.We have to jump off a plane and there are no parachutes.Can we survive? According to the latest study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, among others, the parachute does not make a difference.Their data confirms what scientists at the University of Cambridge had already described in 2003.

Related

But how is it possible? Most readers who have entered this article have been caught by what is now known as a clickbait headline.That is, a headline that induces clicking, but the linked content is not It corresponds exactly to what is advertised.That if, this time, it goes with good intentions.


SERIOUSLY DOES PARACAIDES NOT SAVE LIVES?


Most of us take it for granted.We have seen it in movies and series.We have read it in fiction novels and they have told us that this is really the case.If it is time to jump from a plane, better grab the closest parachute, but maybe they've been lying to us all our lives.


Actually, the paper 'Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial' does not call into question the effectiveness of a parachute.in which the worst nightmare of the jumper is fulfilled and the device does not open.Nor does it tell the story of Guinness heroes like Luke Aikins.The article, published in December in 'The BMJ', actually tells us about something much more serious that survival.It tells us about the power of data and the importance of analyzing the details well before making a judgment.


Science confirms: parachutes do not save lives by jumping off a plane


The details of the controversial paper


The objective of the investigation, carried out for 12 months, between September 2017 and August 2018, was to measure whether using a parachute could prevent serious trauma or even the death of people jumping from an airplane., 92 real passengers of legal age were selected.23 of them decided to participate voluntarily in the risky experiment.The remaining 69 rejected the test (and now we will see why).


Half of the 23 participants were equipped with a real parachute.The other was carrying an empty backpack without knowing it.They all jumped from the same plane and all survived.In addition, the paper , the 23 participants They were at a lower speed and lower altitude than the other 69 shortlisted passengers who decided not to participate in the study.


And it is that the small airplane in which the 23 intrepid subjects of study were was still and on the ground.Yes, the participants jumped to the ground from a height less than two meters.An information that the article does not explain until methodological details and that researchers point out as "minor detail".


Science confirms: parachutes do not save lives by jumping off a plane


The lessons of a safe jump


The authors of this research conducted a randomized controlled trial, that is, they selected the subjects of the experiment randomly.This did not prevent all the selected subjects from being in a plane on the ground, which biased, since the Start, the final result of the experiment.Without this bias, the conclusions of the study would have been very different.If any of the passengers in flight had jumped without a parachute, we all know what the end would have been.


"The parachute study satirically highlights some of the limitations of randomized controlled trials.Still, we believe that this type of trial remains the standard for the evaluation of most new medical treatments.The parachute article suggests, however, that the precise interpretation of these studies requires more than a brief reading of the abstract .Moreover, the interpretation requires a complete and critical evaluation of the study, "the study authors state in their conclusions.


Marijuana has alien genes


Another lesson that can be drawn from this article has to do with our reading habits and some bad vices of journalism.Titulars such as this piece lead to engano on many occasions.And they do not do so much for being biased.in themselves, that too, but because there are few users who enter to read and much less those who reach the end of the article.


Experiments of this type are many on the net.One of the most recurrent is published, from time to time, from the IFL Science website.Through a striking headline ensure in social networks that marijuana contains extraterrestrial genetic material.It has been shared thousands of times and the debates that are mounted on the Sonepic network.And that in the second line of the article it is said that everything is a lie.



Marijuana Contains 'Alien DNA' From Outside Of Our Solar System, NASA Confirms https://t.co/4zEHbQoBgI


-IFLScience (@IFLScience) July 13, 2016

Click, share, tweet, tag, comment, form an opinion in five seconds from a headline.The behavior we show on and off the internet we are increasingly moving away from reflection and the healthy exercise of contrast.If we do not check a headline of fake news , how are we going to read an in-depth scientific study? At what time? We decided to jump into the pool without a parachute?

Images | Unsplash/Quino Al, Jakob Owens, Ben White

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Internet of plants: a tomato knows as much about networks as you

The possibility of plant species communicating through complex networks, what some scientists have called the internet of plants , is an issue that has been discussed for a long time, at least 20 years.It was in 1997 when the scientist Suzanne Simard , from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), published a study in the journal Nature on how Forest plants use complex systems where species exchange nutrients, send warning signals and relate to the environment. Although there is no scientific consensus, several investigations seem to support this hypothesis.If confirmed, as we read in a fascinating report by the Sinc Agency, the forests would act as huge structures that are articulated under the soil through a network in which factors invisible to the human eye interact and can determine the future of the climate.Understanding how it works is the challenge that even science faces. internet of plants and the wisdom of forests The premise of Suzanne Simard ...

New setbacks for conspiranoicos: radiofrequencies do not affect health

New evidence published by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency and Health (CCARS) in its 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report indicates that there are no adverse health effects derived of exposure to radio frequencies emitted by mobile phone antennas or radio and television broadcasting.No evidence has been found on the danger in wireless systems (Wi-Fi) or airport scanners. The new 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report collects, updates and analyzes the scientific evidence on the subject for the period between January 2013 and June 2016. radio frequencies are not dangerous According to the conclusions of the report " the critical analysis of the evidence supports that there are no technical or sanitary reasons that justify the arbitrary and discretionary imposition of more demanding exposure limits than those recommended by WHO-ICNIRP and the Union European ", while the application of more restrictive limits" would imply increasing the n...

GIF history: where they come from and where they are going

Funny, witty, curious... GIFs have already become a regular resource in social networks and messaging applications and have become part of our daily lives and jokes.It is an image format that has evolved significantly throughout its history and is experiencing a new awakening. In fact, to find its origins, we must go back more than twenty years ago .A moment in which they had little to do with what we know today and an evolution that we could not stop review.So let's find out where they come from and try to catch a glimpse of where they are going. What is a GIF The word GIF responds to the acronym of Graphics Interchange Format , or what is the same, graphic exchange format.A term for the graphic format used in the network for both static images and animations.In more concrete terms, it supports 8 bits per pixel and allows you to display images with up to 256 colors simultaneously-limited by a palette of 16 million-. This particularity makes it a perfect ally of infogr...

Amazon Prime Video arrives in Spain: this is all you need to know

That during the last years there has been a change in the way we enjoy audiovisual content is an obvious reality, as reflected by the huge popularity of streaming services like Netflix and the like.A context in which new competitors are constantly added and that, after the landing of this company in our country just over a year ago, is in full transformation. In fact, today we have learned of the incursion of a new protagonist in this area.Yes, because Amazon Prime Video has just arrived in Spain .A landing that takes place only two weeks away that of HBO, which culminates in a 2016 sown of changes.But, what exactly does it consist of? What advantages and disadvantages does it have compared to the "of its kind"? WHAT AMAZON PRIME VIDEO OFFERS The type, quality and quantity of movies and series offered by the service will be key when determining your success.A catalog a priori smaller than that of HBO and Netflix, but in which we find titles like Seinfield , Into...

What we know and what we suspect in the new Facebook algorithm change

"In my time, we read the newspaper in Facebook ".By 2020, nostalgia has taken over billions of people.In its memory, 2018, when Facebook stopped being Facebook to become Facebook again.Paraiso of engagement for brands and media, land paid for clickbaits and fake news, the social network of Mark Zuckerberg has given a rudder to his algorithm. He wants to return to his origins .And this is what will happen. Related If something goes well, to change it.40.653 million dollars entered in 2017.More than 2.100 million active users per month, a quarter of the world's population.But Zuckerberg is not one of those, of which they are.Want a Facebook with more social connections between people and less presence of brands and media .And what do your users want? Nearly two-thirds of American adults consume news on social networks.More than half do so on their Facebook walls.Pew Research Center data points to a clear trend: Facebook is becoming a media platform.54% of Facebook u...

Twitter shows the best of ourselves (it wasn't always going to be the worst)

In the era of social networks, accustomed to interact daily with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google or WhatsApp, we forget that these tools are phenomenal in the History of Humanity capable of mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in very different geographical locations in a matter of hours or even minutes. Already in the past, Twitter has asserted its more social dimension to mobilize people, companies or organizations and also, from a broader perspective, feelings of solidarity and support or also of rejection and repulses towards causes with an important mediatic impact.Recently, Twitter was once again the engine of solidarity after Dortmund's explosions as the Borussia Dortmund team bus passed on its way to the local stadium on the occasion of the Champions League match between the Borussia and the Monaco. These explosions did not have the devastating effect that they could have caused , so that everything remained in a major social commotion at international lev...

Most apps for children violate your privacy

Do you know if apps with which children enjoy their safety? A team of researchers from the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of the University of Berkeley has studied compliance with the Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in these mobile applications for the little ones, through a scalable dynamic analysis that allows the automatic evaluation of privacy behaviors of Android apps. After studying 5,855 applications aimed at children, the research concludes that most of these apps, 57%, violate the privacy of their users mainly due to the use of data by third parties. apps for children and privacy Although many apps offer options in their configuration to respect the federal law that protects minors in the United States, by disabling tracking, their results suggest that a majority of applications either do not use these options or propagate them in wrong way. In addition, researchers believe that 19% of apps for children send user IDs to third parties to show ...

Are social networks damaging democracy?

The revelations according to which Russian agents inserted ads on Facebook that tried to influence the 2016 US elections raise a disturbing question: is Facebook bad for democracy? As an expert in the social and political repercussions of technology, I think that the problem is not exclusively from Facebook, but that it is much broader: Social networks are weakening some of the conditions that have historically enabled the existence of national states democratic. I understand that it is a dramatic statement, and I do not expect anyone to believe it immediately, but considering that almost half of all potential voters received false news promoted by the Russians in Facebook is an argument that must be debated. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina-Charlotte How we create a shared reality Let's start with two concepts: the "imagined community" and the "bubble filter". ...

This is how visual challenges star in some of the most viral content

Constantly, we all receive in our mail, our WhatsApp or our Facebook account, games that try to test our ingenuity, imagination or visual skill.There are a thousand types, more fun or darker.But they have one thing in common: we cannot avoid trying them and see if we are able to solve them .This is how the visual challenges star in some of the most viral content of the network. Visual challenges, why are we crazy? The visual challenges are games.So, they attend to this playful and fun part that people have no choice but to feed from time to time.They are pure and hard entertainment, with no more pretensions, and that desire to Having fun represents one of the main features that are sought when surfing the Internet . Another of the qualities for which they succeed is because they challenge the mind directly.Human beings love that feeling of feeling a little troubled, somewhat lost, but convinced that there is a solution to that enigma to which, sooner or later, it will come.Rathe...

Everything (much) that Google and Facebook know about you

The Cambridge Analytica scandal It is one of the most serious violations of privacy in history.More than 50 million confidential data were obtained from Facebook without the consent of the users.Mark Zuckerberg himself admitted the flaws in the platform and announce some important changes. Related Cambridge Analytica is a company that used the data extracted from Facebook accounts to develop a powerful software capable of influencing the elections of several countries.It did so through the creation of political ads The research has revealed that the company began collecting personal data from users in 2014 without their authorization. The sudden discovery of privacy Many people now wonder that (and how much) information about them is really in the hands of the social network.The campaign #deletefacebook , to unsubscribe from the platform is having a lot of resonance.that the world has now discovered that the big multinationals know a lot about us.Good morning, green sleev...