READERS often come across unusual titles for scientific papers and send them to us. Here is the latest batch.
Andrew Hutchins noticed a paper in Cell (vol 87, p 151) by S. Block entitled: “Fifty ways to love your lever: Myosin motors”.
Robert Stevens was struck by a preprint he found on the web prior to publication in the proceedings of a meeting on the cosmic microwave background and the European Space Agency’s planned Planck space probe. It was “Omega_lambda, Omega_m! We know you’re in there. We’ve got you surrounded. Come out with your hands up” by Charles H. Lineweaver ().
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Meanwhile, Michael Gifford was disturbed to come across this by E. Shchepakina in Nonlinear Analysis, vol 4, p 45: “Black swans and canards in self-ignition problem”.
And then there is the paper by Z. Yang and A. D. Yoder noticed by Seranne Howis in Systematic Biology (vol 52, p 705). Howis admits that it begins rather drily, but was struck by the change of mood at the end: “Comparisons of likelihood and Bayesian methods for estimating divergence times using multiple gene loci and calibration points, with application to a radiation of cute-looking mouse lemur species”.
David Robinson was looking on Pubmed for new crystal structures of proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and was disconcerted to find himself led to a paper by C. L. Arya, R. Gupta and V. K. Arora entitled “Accidental condom inhalation” (Indian Journal of Chest Disease and Allied Science, vol 46, p 55).
And last but not least, one that a number of readers have sent us, the wonderfully ironic “Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials” published in the British Medical Journal (vol 327, p 1459) last December. The whole paper is well worth a read.
AT LAST, a website that exposes pseudo-scientific gobbledegook in product claims. We continually hear of claims for, in particular, therapeutic treatments that seem patently absurd, if not downright fraudulent. But sadly we do not have the time and resources to check most of them out to see if they really are as ridiculous as they look, nor do we have space to report on them all.
So we are grateful to Jeff Dickens, who found himself so amazed by the claims made for a supposedly diagnostic electromagnetic device in a leaflet that he read that he did a web search on it. He came up with the Quackwatch site, which not only investigates surprising product claims, but also looks into the credentials of the people who make them.
While the site’s definition of quackery is wider than some might wish, it makes fascinating reading and we thoroughly recommend it. See .
WHAT is it about British terminology for road crossings? Our item about an “uneven level crossing” (27 March) prompted Robert Peveler to tell us about the car park outside Terminal 3 at London’s Heathrow airport, where there is a sign that reads “Humped zebra crossing”. Peveler says he has often waited there for ages in the hope of spotting the mythical beast, but so far without luck.
He goes on to tell us that he suffers from a condition he calls “literalism” – which last year we dubbed semiopathy, or over-identification with signs – and gives another example of a sign that has caused him particular difficulty. It is outside the hospital where he works and reads: “Guard dogs operate at this hospital”.
“A PERSON’S sex drive may be proportional to the size of their amygdala,” Nature’s online Science Update reported recently. The Australian researcher whose work the report cited had studied people with epilepsy, and more work will be needed to know if the findings are true for the general population. If so – or even while we wait for such studies to be performed – we can presumably anticipate some new spam: “Hey, Feedback, bet you’d like to have a bigger a*m*y*g*d*a*l*a! No pumps, no exercises.”
“THERE can be few surprises left in the wonderful world of Windows error messages,” we asserted on 3 April. Cassie Coburn begs to differ. Not long after reading this, her computer suddenly told her: “Error: Can’t find website puffin.”
Inevitably, she felt that this raised the equally important question of where the website penguin is.
FINALLY, a recent announcement on CNBC left Anthony Hearne wondering whether nanotechnology research is heading in the right direction. “After the break,” it said, “we will be going over to the Nanotech Conference in Boston where we will be hearing of big things that are coming in nanotechnology.”
Graham Houghton was puzzled by a notice from the Tindo Nudist Club, near Adelaide, South Australia, in which it advertises itself as: “Ideal for all ages, very reasonable fees, uniform free”
