Hello, Tim Halford here. Thanks very much for downloading our podcast. Just a quick word

of warning. The two topics that we cover here are ones that loyal listeners may have heard

before. One of them is about science in mice and the other is about top mathematical tricks

that you can enjoy. Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service. We're

the programme that holds up the mirror of truth to the world of shady statistics. And I'm Tim

Halford. Australian scientist James Heathers has been getting a lot of attention on Twitter by

standing up for the underdog or rather the under mouse. The two magic words are in mice because

that's the only qualification that you need to make a lot of headlines and brief article

descriptions about scientific items into something that's a lot more accurate.

So how does it work? James' retweet science stories are complemented by that simple two-word caveat.

Let's give it a go.

Compounds found in carrots reverse Alzheimer's-like symptoms.

In mice.

In mice.

Exercise at night will give you better results. In mice.

Some headlines go even further saying women when they mean female mice or even referring to the

lab mice as patients. Reused cooking oil ups risk of metastases in breast cancer patients.

In mice.

I love the idea of mice as patients because I immediately imagine tiny little hospital

gowns and caps and tiny little shoes for clean rooms. There's something that's really quite

adorable about it but it's obviously ridiculous. But is it really a problem? A few journalists

trying to juja a boring old science story? After all, a potential new medicine working is a good

...