Blog Pick of the Month – November 2010

The PLoS ONE Blog Pick of the Month for November goes to Ed Yong for his post “Tetris could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder flashbacks (but quiz games make them worse)” at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

As Ed describes:

You’ve just been in a horrific car crash. You’re unharmed but the vividness of the experience – the sight of a looming car, the crunching of metal, the overwhelming panic – has left you a bit traumatised. You want something to help take the edge off and fortunately a doctor is on hand to prescribe you with… Tetris.

Yes, that Tetris. According to Emily Holmes from the University of Oxford, the classic video game of falling coloured blocks could prevent people who have suffered through a traumatic experience from developing full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As ideas go, it’s practically the definition of quirky, but there is scientific method behind the madness.

Ed was chosen as this month’s winner because he built off a previous post, updating his content in light of new information from a recent study.  So not only did he blog about two PLoS ONE papers, but he emphasized one of the beauties of online science journalism – the ability to rework your thoughts when new data arise.

Being our winner, Ed will receive a PLoS ONE t-shirt in the mail, as will all of the authors of the papers cited.

Photo via Flickr / ©sammie