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Deplorable that the @washingtonpost is spreading the nonsense that "Horns are growing on young people's skulls". washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06… There is an interesting story here, and part of it is about journalists' gullibility and moral panics. 
@washingtonpost The "horn head" story is based upon a 2018 @SciReports research paper that has NO TABLE OF RESULTS. nature.com/articles/s4159… It does include one figure that appears to show age-related changes, but that figure is clearly incorrect because it conflicts with the text.
@washingtonpost @SciReports How bad is it? The text says "Sex was the primary predictor with males being 5.48 times more likely to have EEOP than females (P < 0.001)." The figure shows almost no difference between males and females (and young females HIGHER than males). One of these is obviously wrong!
@washingtonpost @SciReports If the paper included any table with results, it would be easy to see where the error is. As it is, the results appear to be total nonsense. How did this get through even the most basic, cursory peer review?
@washingtonpost @SciReports (I add, the omission of a table and inclusion of an incorrect figure may not even be the authors' fault. Who knows if these problems may be copy editing failures by @SciReports ?)
How was a @washingtonpost journalist supposed to know that these results are so screwy? Well, they could act like journalists and ask experts outside the study for comment. But the "horn head" headline was just too good to check.
@washingtonpost It would be super interesting if this result were true, but there are many warning flags with this study. The external occipital protuberance is a well-studied trait in anthropology, and we know a lot about its frequency in different populations. This paper cites none of that.
@washingtonpost One more interesting thing: Kyle Sheldrick posted a public comment on @SciReports following the article three days ago, pointing out the paper's most embarrassing flaw. Post-pub review in action! Yet nobody seems to have paid attention.
