“Biomarker Porn” and the “Hotness” of Telomeres

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On PLOS Blogs’ Mind the Brain, James Coyne critically examines the growing plethora of psychiatric studies looking at the lengths of telomeres on chromosomes and claiming to find damages caused by traumas of different kinds. Along the way, he blames flawed studies, misleading press releases, gullible journalists, and an obession with “biomarker porn” on the part of National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel.

NIMH Biomarker Porn: Depression, Daughters, and Telomeres Part 1 (PLOS Blogs, Mind the Brain, January 21, 2015)

Biomarker Porn: From Bad Science to Press Release to Praise by NIMH Director (PLOS Blogs Mind the Brain, January 29, 2015)

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  1. It used to take ages for a given finding to be replicated and studied from different angles by different people before it was accepted as a plausible explanation of reality. Now we have a sort of science pop culture where one time studies which can be right or wrong or “right” but not understood as to what they mean are put in the spotlight and all sorts of outrageous claims are being made based on them.

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