Music for sprouting seeds

[Dredred]

From this page (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15025885&query_hl=1) :

OBJECTIVE: To measure biologic effects of music, noise, and healing energy without human preferences or placebo effects using seed germination as an objective biomarker.
[...]
Musical sound had a significant effect compared to noise and an untreated control as a function of time (p < 0.03) while there was no significant difference between seeds exposed to noise and an untreated control. Healing energy also had a significant effect compared to an untreated control

Can anybody tell me anything about the reliability of this research?

[geni]

Publised in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine with Gary E. Schwartz as one of the authors. What can I say.

[Dredred]

Originally posted by geni
Publised in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine with Gary E. Schwartz as one of the authors. What can I say.

Oh yes, now I remember him, from his excellent work (http://www.twopercentco.com/rants/archives/2005/03/medium_the_dubi_4.html) with 'medium' Allison Dubois.. :D

[Alkatran]

Mythbusters did one of these tests.

They found that it went something like this:

silence < good talk = bad talk < classical music < death metal

They used a small sample though. The pattern seems to be the more noise the better. ;)

[TobiasTheViking]

Hævi mætal og hass

[dakotajudo]

Originally posted by Dredred

Can anybody tell me anything about the reliability of this research?
The statistical analysis is dodgy - they used a five-way ANOVA that included experiment number as an effect. While they did find signficance, it is likely due to that experiment number, and not treatments within each experiment.

There also appears to be a slight effect of healing energy treatment - but I couldn't find how the controls were treated, so it simply may be a difference in light.