A sticky situation
ADVERTISING a product using a flimsy scientific premise: itâs a ploy you either love or hate, and our colleagues are firmly in the latter camp. So itâs no surprise that they felt a press release claiming a genetic basis for a Marmite preference was not an idea worth spreading. Many other media outlets did, however, and it falls to Feedback to unpick the notion.
The work in question, by genetic testing company DNAFit, purports to explain a liking (or lack thereof) for the popular yeast-based spread. Genetic samples from 261 people were examined for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), bits of the genome where one letter varies from person to person. They found five SNPs that were common to self-described Marmite lovers.
Advertisement
But a study like this canât prove that genes have an effect on breakfast spread preferences. Even if there was no genetic component to peopleâs reaction to Marmite, you could still find SNPs shared by those who love to put Marmite on their toast. And who better to share SNPs than family members? It could be that people simply develop a taste for things their parents have on the kitchen table.
To really find out if an SNP makes a difference, you would need to put each version of it into mice and study their breakfast habits. Thatâs a much more complicated endeavour than just doing a quick bit of genetic testing in a bid to score headlines.
The press release ends by mentioning that for just ÂŁ89.99, interested readers can order their own genetic scan from DNAFit and âdiscover for themselves if they were born Marmite lovers or hatersâ. Those on a budget might consider a cheaper test â a small jar of Marmite and a spoon.
âThe UKâs ÂŁ10 notes are being replaced. Barbara Wager is left cheered, if sceptical, by the Bank of Englandâs claim that the old banknotes will âretain their face value for all timeââ
Subway to the stars
AWAKENING the spirit of Feedback in a new generation, physics teacher Rebecca Cornwell asked her students to estimate the distance in kilometres from Earth to various objects in orbit, including the moon.
âA pupil spontaneously asked if they could measure in âsubwaysâ instead, as they could visualise that more easily,â she writes. It took her a moment to work out that the student meant the products of a baguette-based sandwich chain.
âIt did prompt an interesting discussion, however, about the need for a standard âsubwayâ,â says Rebecca. Truer words were never spoken, thinks Feedback: only last year, the company settled a class-action lawsuit after it was revealed that many of its âFootlongâ sandwiches measured .
Fat chance
PREVIOUSLY, Feedback asked you in what ways we might adapt humans to better survive climate change (2 September). âProtection of the human species has already started,â says Roger Denison, who correlates the increasing frequency and severity of obesity with the increasing frequency and severity of flooding. âA good layer of blubber tends to keep us warm in the water and aids buoyancy,â he says, âwhich must help us survive tidal surges and flooding from torrential rain.â
Roger also suggests that the resulting increase in the surface area of human bodies might even tip the balance in favour of photosynthetic skin. Feedback thinks getting humans fat enough to cross this threshold would probably sequester so much carbon that climate change itself could be averted.
Notional potion
RESPONDING to our cost-saving strategies for homeopathic remedies (9 September), Barrie Barton writes in with a further suggestion. âI simply omit the active ingredient, as per the best tradition of homeopathy, and also leave out the carrier substance, the container and even the label.â
Barrie says this is âthe ultimate homeopathic preparation available and is also very cheapâ. And, he adds, itâs just as effective as the shop-bought version.
Do no harm
FURTHER to the West Yorkshire medical practice known as the Kilmeny Surgery (9 September), Michael Hitchman reports the existence of the Amwell Group Practice in Islington, London. âPossibly another example of the North-South divide?â he asks.
Crystal radio
HOPING to find a new USB charging cable for his phone, Richard Mellish is snagged by some truly unbelievable hardware from AudioQuest. âIs digital audio really just ones and zeroes?â the site asks. âWe donât believe so.â
In Feedbackâs experience, the audiophile market usually contains quite a lot of zeroes. AudioQuestâs âDiamond USB Type A to Type Mini B Cableâ is 75 centimetres long, has âsolid 100% perfect-surface silver conductorsâ,
What do you get from a USB cable that costs as much as the phone itâs connected to? Hi-Fi+ magazine said this was an âaudibly superior USB cable that offers exceptional retrieval of low-level details and three-dimensional soundstaging , which also conveys a heightened â indeed, almost âsculpturalâ â sense of rock-solid imagingâ .
Not mentioned: the remarkable efficiency with which cables like these can siphon money from audiophilesâ bank accounts.
