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Feedback – FEEDBACK’s favourite prizes, the Ig Nobels, were presented last week to their worthy recipients in a ceremony at Harvard University. Organised by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research , the awards celebrate research that makes you laugh, then think. This year’s Ig Nobel peace prize went to unnamed researchers at what was formerly the US air force’s Wright Laboratory (now the Air Force Research Laboratory) in Ohio for putting a new twist on the old slogan “Make love, not war”. They proposed a new generation of chemical weapons that “affect human behaviour so that discipline and morale in enemy units are adversely affected”. In particular, they noted that strong aphrodisiacs are “completely non-lethal”, but could be seriously disruptive “especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behaviour”. An alternative was to spray the enemy with insect aphrodisiacs. The air force’s proposal – revealed in a document obtained by the Sunshine Project watchdog group – did not compare the effects of sex-crazed bugs with those of sex-crazed fellow soldiers, and left unasked the question of whether the effects of either would leave enemy soldiers begging to surrender. Even so, we wonder what happened to this proposal since it was put forward in 1994. DISCOVERING a new use for Viagra earned the Ig Nobel aviation prize for Diego Golombek, Patricia Agostino and Santiago Plano of the National University of Quilmes in Argentina. They found that a suitable dose of the drug helped hamsters recover more quickly from jet lag (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 104, p 9834, reported in New Scientist at www.tinyurl.com/25oofr). They have yet to test its efficacy in alleviating human jet lag. A PAPER entitled “Effects of backward speech and speaker variability in language discrimination by rats” earned the Ig Nobel linguistics prize for Juan Toro, Josep Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles of the University of Barcelona in Spain. They found that rats can discriminate between sentences spoken in Dutch and Japanese by recognising rhythmic differences, but can’t if the sentences are played backwards or if different people speak them (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, vol 31, p 95, reported in New Scientist at www. tinyurl.com/32xknh). Human infants and cotton-top tamarin monkeys apparently exhibit the same pattern, and we wouldn’t be surprised if adult humans do too. SURVEYING the degree to which we sleep with bugs earned Johanna van Bronswijk of Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands the Ig Nobel prize in biology. Her studies of the things living in Dutch mattresses vacuumed up mites, spiders, crustaceans, bacteria, algae and even ferns – making us think it’s time we gave our bedroom a good clean. A “BOTTOMLESS” bowl of soup earned Brian Wansink of Cornell University in New York state the Ig Nobel nutrition prize. Wondering what makes people decide when they have eaten enough, he sat volunteers down to eat soup at a table where some bowls were normal while others secretly refilled themselves as the volunteers ate. Wansink found that volunteers’ eyes mattered more than their stomachs. Volunteers ate 70 per cent more soup if the bowl topped itself up to look full than if the soup level dropped normally. So if you’re trying to lose weight, he suggests in Obesity Research (vol 13, p 93), you should fool yourself by serving small portions on smaller- than-usual plates. ON THE other hand, you could put yourself off the idea of food by thinking of flavourings like the one synthesised by Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan. She earned the Ig Nobel prize in chemistry by producing vanillin, used in vanilla flavourings and scents, from cow dung. Since Japan has 40,000 tonnes of cow dung a year to dispose of and most synthetic vanilla is manufactured from petrochemicals, Yamamoto argues that the dung would be a greener source. In honour of Yamamota, Toscanini’s, an ice-cream store near Harvard University, has created the “Yum-a-Moto vanilla twist”. The manager insists the flavour comes from natural vanilla beans, not dung, but Feedback is sticking with the Belgian chocolate flavour. FINALLY, a dish of any flavour ice cream might be just the thing for sword throat, a common side effect of sword swallowing. A description of that condition in the medical journal BMJ (vol 333, p 1285), earned the Ig Nobel medicine prize for Brian Witcombe, a radiologist at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the UK and Dan Meyer, a Tennessee sword-swallower. Sword throat occurs when sword- swallowers are learning the trick, repeating it frequently, or using odd- shaped or multiple swords. Normally it heals if they stop for a while, and fatal wounds are rare. However, Witcombe and Meyer’s paper excluded injuries from swallowing other objects “such as glass, neon tubes, spear guns, or jackhammers”. Somehow Feedback doesn’t feel in the least tempted. You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website. A factory near Norman Parker’s house has two entrances. One has a notice saying “NO LORRIES USE NEXT ENTRANCE”. “Do we need to know?” asks Parker PAUL MCDEVITT 92 | NewScientist | 13 October 2007 www.newscientist.com
Transcript of Feedback
Feedback–
FEEDBACK’s favourite prizes, the Ig
Nobels, were presented last week to
their worthy recipients in a ceremony
at Harvard University. Organised by
the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research , the awards
celebrate research that makes you
laugh, then think.
This year’s Ig Nobel peace prize went
to unnamed researchers at what was
formerly the US air force’s Wright
Laboratory (now the Air Force Research
Laboratory ) in Ohio for putting a new
twist on the old slogan “Make love, not
war”. They proposed a new generation
of chemical weapons that “affect
human behaviour so that discipline
and morale in enemy units are
adversely affected”. In particular, they
noted that strong aphrodisiacs are
“completely non-lethal”, but could be
seriously disruptive “especially if the
chemical also caused homosexual
behaviour”. An alternative was to spray
the enemy with insect aphrodisiacs.
The air force’s proposal – revealed in
a document obtained by the Sunshine
Project watchdog group – did not
compare the effects of sex-crazed
bugs with those of sex-crazed fellow
soldiers, and left unasked the question
of whether the effects of either would
leave enemy soldiers begging to
surrender. Even so, we wonder what
happened to this proposal since it was
put forward in 1994.
DISCOVERING a new use for Viagra earned
the Ig Nobel aviation prize for Diego
Golombek, Patricia Agostino and Santiago
Plano of the National University of Quilmes
in Argentina. They found that a suitable
dose of the drug helped hamsters recover
more quickly from jet lag (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 104, p 9834, reported in New Scientist at
www.tinyurl.com/25oofr ). They have yet to
test its efficacy in alleviating human jet lag.
A PAPER entitled “Effects of backward
speech and speaker variability in
language discrimination by rats”
earned the Ig Nobel linguistics prize
for Juan Toro, Josep Trobalon and Nuria
Sebastian-Galles of the University of
Barcelona in Spain. They found that
rats can discriminate between
sentences spoken in Dutch and
Japanese by recognising rhythmic
differences, but can’t if the sentences
are played backwards or if different
people speak them (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, vol 31, p 95,
reported in New Scientist at www.
tinyurl.com/32xknh ). Human infants
and cotton-top tamarin monkeys
apparently exhibit the same pattern,
and we wouldn’t be surprised if adult
humans do too.
SURVEYING the degree to which we sleep
with bugs earned Johanna van Bronswijk
of Eindhoven University of Technology in
the Netherlands the Ig Nobel prize in
biology. Her studies of the things living
in Dutch mattresses vacuumed up mites,
spiders, crustaceans, bacteria, algae and
even ferns – making us think it’s time we
gave our bedroom a good clean.
A “BOTTOMLESS” bowl of soup earned
Brian Wansink of Cornell University in
New York state the Ig Nobel nutrition
prize. Wondering what makes people
decide when they have eaten enough,
he sat volunteers down to eat soup at
a table where some bowls were normal
while others secretly refilled
themselves as the volunteers ate.
Wansink found that volunteers’ eyes
mattered more than their stomachs.
Volunteers ate 70 per cent more soup if
the bowl topped itself up to look full
than if the soup level dropped
normally. So if you’re trying to lose
weight, he suggests in Obesity Research
(vol 13, p 93) , you should fool yourself
by serving small portions on smaller-
than-usual plates.
ON THE other hand, you could put yourself
off the idea of food by thinking of
flavourings like the one synthesised by
Mayu Yamamoto of the International
Medical Center of Japan. She earned the
Ig Nobel prize in chemistry by producing
vanillin, used in vanilla flavourings and
scents, from cow dung. Since Japan has
40,000 tonnes of cow dung a year to
dispose of and most synthetic vanilla
is manufactured from petrochemicals,
Yamamoto argues that the dung would
be a greener source.
In honour of Yamamota, Toscanini’s,
an ice-cream store near Harvard University,
has created the “Yum-a-Moto vanilla
twist”. The manager insists the flavour
comes from natural vanilla beans, not
dung, but Feedback is sticking with the
Belgian chocolate flavour.
FINALLY, a dish of any flavour ice cream
might be just the thing for sword
throat, a common side effect of sword
swallowing . A description of that
condition in the medical journal BMJ (vol 333, p 1285), earned the Ig Nobel
medicine prize for Brian Witcombe,
a radiologist at Gloucestershire Royal
Hospital in the UK and Dan Meyer ,
a Tennessee sword-swallower.
Sword throat occurs when sword-
swallowers are learning the trick,
repeating it frequently, or using odd-
shaped or multiple swords. Normally it
heals if they stop for a while, and fatal
wounds are rare. However, Witcombe
and Meyer’s paper excluded injuries
from swallowing other objects “such as
glass, neon tubes, spear guns, or
jackhammers”. Somehow Feedback
doesn’t feel in the least tempted.
You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.
A factory near Norman Parker’s house has two entrances. One has a notice saying “NO LORRIES USE NEXT ENTRANCE”. “Do we need to know?” asks Parker
PAUL
MCD
EVIT
T
92 | NewScientist | 13 October 2007 www.newscientist.com
071013_R_UK_Feedback.indd 92071013_R_UK_Feedback.indd 92 5/10/07 2:57:12 pm5/10/07 2:57:12 pm
