ENTERTAININGLY titled papers continue to arrive. First the hyperbolic: “From molecular chemistry to supramolecular chemistry to superdupermolecular chemistry. Controlling covalent bond formation through non-covalent and magnetic interactions” by Nicholas Turro (Chemical Communications, DOI: 10.1039/b205552j).
Then there’s the disturbing image conjured up by “Cardiorespiratory effects of pneumatic antishock trousers,” by E. Abraham, J. C. Cobo and W. C. Shoemaker (Critical Care Medicine, vol 11, p 225).
Finally, the truly revealing: “Portable knowledge: a look inside white coat pockets” by L. A. Lynn and L. M. Bellini (Annals of Internal Medicine, vol 131, p 632). As well as its title, we like this paper’s conclusion: “We found that medical students and first-year residents had more crowded pockets than faculty members. In fact, the chair of our department carried only a pen. We take this as a hopeful sign that even in the information age, experience is still more valuable than a paper or electronic substitute.”
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THE label on a jacket made of Stormtech H2X that reader Laerke Thomasen bought has some surprising news for chemists. It says: “Created for active outdoor sports, Stormtech H2X repels large water molecules from the outside, such as rain or snow, while allowing smaller perspiration vapor molecules from the human skin to pass between the fabric to the outside.”
On a similar theme, this may be related to the public understanding of science observed by reader Saskia Latendresse. At the local market she encountered a lady dressed in dairy white offering goat’s cheese for taste testing. Prospective buyers were informed that goat’s cheese was better than cheese from cow’s milk for your levels of blood cholesterol. The reason? “A goat is smaller than a cow, so the molecules are smaller and won’t stick in your arteries.”
CELEBRATING NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor having snapped its 100,000th photograph of the Red Planet, Space.com posted high-resolution images of the so-called “Inca City”, a geological feature that some romantics claim are remnants of an ancient civilisation.
The pictures are indeed very detailed. As Space.com points out: “Objects the size of school buses can be seen in the full-size image.” Sadly, however, it feels obliged to add: “There is no evidence for any such transportation devices on the planet.”
So how did the Martian Incas get to school?
COSMETIC labels are linguistic wonders. What other literary form serves up so much suggested promise while remaining, for legal reasons, so thoroughly content-free? Feedback is looking forward to a face-cream that “reduces the appearance of being a raddled old hack”.
In the meantime, the Tesco supermarket chain has a wonder of nature in its exclusive Physique hair-care range. It “cleverly uses magnetic-like forces to help you create the style you want”.
As Sue Hughes suggests, the “Volume Collection” might possibly employ old-fashioned electrostatic forces – the force that dare not speak its name in applied trichology since being implicated in the dreaded “fly-away hair”. And the “Control Collection for smooth sleekness” sounds a lot like surface tension. Coming soon: “Gukko hairspray, using the strong nuclear force to stay all day”.
Hughes also sends an ad for “permanent, light-reflecting colour”. Now, totally non-light-reflecting hair dye, that’d be cool…
DON’T forget that this is your last chance to enter the Feedback Christmas competition. This year’s theme is evolution. You are invited to pick a human behaviour or trait and provide your own evolutionary explanation for why it exists.
For example: Why do men get hairier as they get older?
Answer: It’s all to do with hunting. Men, as we know, evolved to chase down woolly mammoths – that’s why they are athletic and good at throwing spears. But as they aged, their physical prowess waned and they needed other adaptations to keep up with the boys. That’s where increased hairiness comes in. A liberal covering of hair acted as rudimentary camouflage, allowing them to get close to their prey without arousing the suspicion of the short-sighted mammoths, who saw them as kin. The fact that men’s ears and noses also continue to grow into old age adds weight to the theory.
You may submit up to two entries each by letter, fax or email. Thanks to the generosity of its makers, 10 lucky winners will each receive a bottle of Famous Grouse whisky (a Feedback favourite) and, thanks to Time Warner Books, they will also receive Steve Jones’s acclaimed new book Y: The Descent of Man (reviewed 16 November, p 45).
The winning entries will be chosen on the basis of their wit and originality. All entries must reach us by Monday 2 December. The winners will be announced in the 21/28 December issue. The Editor’s decision is final.
The Post range of breakfast cereals promotes an image of traditional old-time wholesomeness, so no surprise that the box reader Sudarshan Anand of Rochester, Minnesota, recently bought declared “Best if used by Sept 1903”