Palani's day out

I came across these two phrases last week. I heard them from different people at different situations but both were intriguing to me. They were unrelated but i felt compelled to write about them just like that. One was "placebo effect". I don't remember the actual context but my brother mentioned it while we were having a discussion over the memorial day weekend. In layman terms, if you have headache you may think that a cup of coffee will fix it. Even though medically the caffeine may help you out, the good feeling and the belief you have on the coffee as the remedy acts as a catalyst to make you feel better quickly. That's called as the "placebo effect". Though i have come across the general meaning of the phrase over the years such as feel good factor or terms such as " everything is in your mind" or attitude/belief to a certain extent while taking medication, i was surprised that there is a proper term "placebo effect" for this phenomena and it is a widely researched topic for many decades in the scientific community. On the Internet, one will find many interesting accounts of how this phenomena is studied/ researched the help of various clinical trials.

Placebo effect - "The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or treatment that has been administered."

The other one was "canary in a coal mine". When my colleague was getting ready to get out of work, she said that she was like the "canary in the coal mine" to people who still stays at work after she leaves. She is the one who leaves works as the last person generally. I know that the phrase was something close to a warning. I was like whats that??? and she went on for few minutes about the short life of a canary in a coal mine. I told her that i will leave immediately along with her as i don't want to stay after the canary :)

Canary in a coal mine - "Life for an actual canary in a coal mine could be described in three words - short but meaningful. Early coal mines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the canary in a coal mine kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary in a coal mine signaled an immediate evacuation."