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Monday, November 26, 2012

Death What's a Good Time of Day to Die?

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 12:54 PM

Genetic "switches" determine much about our bodies, including hair color, blood type, and susceptibility to certain diseases. Now, researchers believe they have found a gene that regulates something far more eerie: the time of day a person is likely to die.

In an study published in the November 2012 issue of the Annals of Neurology scientists studying the body's biological clock (a.k.a. the circadian rhythm) report the discovery of gene variant that not only determines the likelihood of your being a morning person, but also predicts, with unsettling accuracy, your likely time of death.

The gene typically allows for three possible combinations of nucleotides (the four molecular building blocks of DNA): adenine-adenine (A-A), adenine-guanine (A-G), and guanine-guanine (G-G), according to a written statement released by Harvard Medical School...investigators realized as some of the 1,200 older subjects in the project died that these nucleotide sequences were accurate predictors of their time of death, within a range of only a few hours. Patients with the A-A and A-G genotypes typically died just before 11 a.m., while subjects with the G-G combination tended to die near 6 p.m.

This calls for a legally binding Slog poll!

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Comments (11) RSS

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I don't have an opinion on huffpo, but the sad truth is that the majority of readers wouldn't care what a p value is unless their lives depended on it. Maybe not even then. I can't blame journalists for not reporting something that would cause most readers to stop reading.

/would be nice if they stuck it at the end, not as if they need to save space or anything online.

Posted by wingedkat on November 26, 2012 at 10:55 PM

The Huffington Post's science coverage is notoriously loony and irresponsible.

The abstract doesn't say anything about their sample size. A p-value of .015 is pretty good and it's not an implausible premise, but at the very least they could have given me n.

Seriously, though, don't ever believe anything about science or health that you read in the HuffPo. They're fucking crackers for woo-woo fake medicine and overhyped research press releases. Just the fact that they covered this story makes me want to demand a replication before I believe it.

Posted by balderdash

on November 26, 2012 at 10:07 PM

If I were to croak at work, someone would be likely to revive me. The benefits of working in a hospital!

Posted by OOF POOF on November 26, 2012 at 5:49 PM

HuffPo gloss:

The Atlantic reports researchers believe their results may be due to the human body reverting to its more natural, circadian rhythm-induced state as death approaches, instead of the cycle created by social commitments.

Wait, what?

The Atlantic original:

Intriguingly, the authors hypothesize that the social commitments that would usually normalize people of varying circadian rhythms became irrelevant as the subjects approached death, allowing them to drift toward their natural states.

Makes those post-prandial dyspeptic attacks a little less worrisome. Word choice and order actually matter, lieblings.

Posted by rob!

on November 26, 2012 at 4:11 PM

I don't give a shit what time of day, but I either want to die peacefully in my sleep, or get hit by a truck. No lingering cancer or Alzheimer's for me, thanks.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on November 26, 2012 at 4:10 PM

At dinner while choking on a piece of prime beef.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on November 26, 2012 at 1:53 PM

I want to die at a time that is very inconvient for everyone involved and I want to make sure it's really messy and public. Perhaps randomly exploding in front of a preschool while the kids are playing in the yard. And not a bomb sort of explosion...just my body blowing itself apart into little bits. Oh...and a cool fart like sound to go with it!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on November 26, 2012 at 1:49 PM

I was going to pick the late night one, but I don't like cheetos. :(

Posted by treacle on November 26, 2012 at 1:45 PM

I thought I didn't have a preference until I was tempted by the handfuls of snack food and ass. I'll even be conscientious and keep my hands separate so no one gets orange powder butt.

Posted by Mattini on November 26, 2012 at 1:34 PM

I couldn't help but notice the similarity in option three to an exchange in Game of Thrones.

Shagga: "How would you like to die, Tyrion son of Tywin?"
Tyrion Lannister: "In my own bed, at the age of eighty, with a bellyful of wine and a girl's mouth around my cock."

Posted by Knat on November 26, 2012 at 1:14 PM