October 3, 2011

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IgNobel Prize WINNER: Public Safety is even safer when you can't see

By Scicurious

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

And you thought YOU drove while distracted:

This year's Ignobel prize in public safety goes to the man who drove on public roads...while a visor moved up and down blocking his vision of the road. He found that to retain attention he was forced to remember a picture of what the road looked like from moment to moment as he drove and lost vision. This means he was also forced to vary his speed, slowing down when he did not have an accurate picture of the road.

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This shows you how much attention is really needed to pay attention to the ROAD (or in the air, they did this with a helicopter as well, apparently hovering is the hardest), as opposed to yelling at your kids, texting, playing with your satellite radio, or listening to your garmin tell you patiently that it is "recalculating". And it makes for one adrenaline fueled driving experience.

Edit: The author of the study has contacted me to clarify that the road in question was NOT in use during the time of the study, and I have edited in some clarifications as requested.

Scicurious has a PhD in Physiology from a Southern institution. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from another respected Southern institution. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at a celebrated institution that is very fancy and somewhere else. Her professional interests are in neurophysiology and psychiatric disorders. She recently obtained her PhD and is pursuing her love of science and writing at the same time. She often blogs in the third person. For more information about Scicurious and to view her recent award and activities, please see her CV ( http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/a-scicurious-cv/)

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