GOOD for The New England Journal of Medicine. Among the most persistent and annoying of the spammers who clog Feedbackâs inbox are those trying to sell us human growth hormone. âTurn back time on your bodyâs biological clock twenty years with just six months of use,â runs the subject line of the latest. It goes on to claim: âLeading experts of The New England Journal of Medicine report that hGH therapy makes you feel and look almost 20 years younger.â And the spam provides a link to an article on the NEJM website which would appear to endorse the supposed benefits of hGH.
But it seems the NEJM editors are fed up with their journal being used in this way. The article in question â an account of a small-scale study in 1990 by D. Rudman and colleagues â is still there. But so is this prominent announcement: âEditorâs note, posted 26 February 2003: this article has been cited in potentially misleading email advertisements. To give readers more complete information, the full text of the article, its accompanying editorial, and more recent articles about advertising dietary supplements and the question of growth hormoneâs role in the aging process have been made available online at no charge.â
There follows a list of links to articles pointing out the limitations of the Rudman study and detailing subsequent investigations. The most up-to-date of these, âCan growth hormone prevent aging?â by Mary Lee Vance (published last month in NEJM, vol 348, p 779), argues that âgoing to the gym is [more] beneficial and certainly cheaper than growth hormonesâ and concludes that âanti-aging therapy with growth hormone has not yet been proved effective according to objective outcome criteriaâ.
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We hope the hGH spammers will continue to direct people to this excellent website which so thoroughly debunks the claims they make for their product. See content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/9/779?query=TOC
ITâS the talk of academic common rooms across the US. After years on the receiving end of ratings, students can now get their own back. The website allows students to rate over 100,000 academics at more than 2500 American colleges and universities.
The site was set up to help students choose the classes they wish to take, based on the experiences of others. And judging by the comments about their professors on the site, they donât pull their punches.
âNot only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality,â says one. âBring a pillow,â advises another.
Now the academics are beginning to take note. Feedback recently overheard the head of a leading physics department complain that only one person in his department had received a good rating. Of course, there is one way to ensure a good rating â by entering it yourself. But surely no professor would ever stoop that low. That would be cheating, wouldnât it?
OUR story about âGareth Thomasâ and his hoax website promoting a fictional therapy called crystal homeopathy was widely disseminated â so much so that Thomas reports over 16,000 hits on in the first few days after the story appeared (Feedback, 1 March).
Sadly, not all the visitors were merely curious to see the hoax for themselves. It seems that as the story spread wider and wider â popping up, for example, on James Randiâs website and subsequently on various New Age websites â knowledge of the site somehow became uncoupled from the knowledge that it was a deliberate fake. Thomas now reports despairingly that more people have tried to purchase his âhomeopathic crystalsâ since he revealed the hoax than before.
When it comes to exposing peopleâs credulity, it seems you just canât win.
WHATâS in a packet of jelly? Tony Caldersmith tells us he bought a twin packet of âOriginal Strawberry and Orange Jellyâ made by J W Food of Sumner Park, Queensland. The ingredients, he says, were identical for both the strawberry and orange jellies, and included âwater, apple juice, thickeners, food acids, flavour and colourâ, but no sign of strawberries or oranges. Whatâs more, the packet suggests that the jelly âneeds no refrigeration, best served chilledâ.
IN A similar vein, reader Susan Doshi reports the state of quantum uncertainty she found herself in when she bought a packet of nectarines from a Waitrose supermarket. It advised her that they required further ripening at room temperature â and that she should refrigerate them after purchase.
FINALLY, reader Howell Peregrine notes that men wanting to go on the âArctic Experienceâ cruise to Disko Bay in Greenland this summer face a problem when it comes to booking a cabin. A note in the brochure tells them: âNote: number of births in cabin must equal party size.â
Does this mean men can go only if their partner is expecting twins?
AS FAR as geeks are concerned, the old jokes are still the best. Reader Alistair Stewart reports ruefully that you can now buy T-shirts bearing the legend: âThere are 10 kinds of people â those who understand binary, and those who donâtâ
