Feedback is 51¶ŻÂțâs popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com
Rings of power
Feedback is often on the lookout for a nice gift for Mrs Feedback, a task made significantly trickier by her pesky habit of pre-ordering books before we even realise they exist.
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So we were briefly intrigued to learn about something called âsmart jewelleryâ. Basically, imagine wearable technology like a Fitbit or Apple Watch that can monitor your heart rate and so forth, but instead of looking like a bit of tech, it is integrated into luxury jewellery.
A recent South China Morning Post headline explains that ââ. For example, we could get a shiny new , which integrates âGucciâs instantly recognisable interlocking G motifâ with health-tracking technology that can âdiscreetly monitor sleep, heart rate, temperature and activity, among other metricsâ. Or rather, we canât: it was a limited edition. Second-hand ones on eBay start from ÂŁ390 and escalate from there.
Feedback can think of at least one way this could go wrong. As a Bluesky user who goes by Zack Pizzaz , a wedding ring that monitors its usersâ every emotion and movement could be the premise for a dystopian science fiction novel. It certainly sounds like the sort of thing Margaret Atwood would come up with. But surely, no business is proposing that people give their partner a smart ring and then monitor their every move?
Oh wait, our mistake, someone is proposing exactly that. Depending on your relationship status, you may or may not be aware of the dating app RAW. It requires users to submit only unfiltered photos of themselves, apparently to counter practices like catfishing. Which, OK, fine, whatever, but the company is launching a spin-off product called the RAW Ring. It is âAI poweredâ with âheart rate & temperature sensorsâ â and âvoice trackingâ.
According to co-founder Marina Anderson, the ring is âlike a bestie on a finger â keeping tabs on heart beats, body heat, and interactions around your partner. When somethingâs up, youâll know. Simple as thatâ. A of her in The Verge reported that she believed such emotional surveillance could deepen relationships.
Or as the RAW Ring website proudly proclaims: âMarriage evolves, and so does loyalty. Sacred vows go digital. RAWâs mission? Making true love trackable.â
We mentioned all of this to Mrs Feedback, and she informed us that if we buy her any of these items, we will be facing a divorce and alimony. A book token it is, then.
Thinking big
Hereâs another headline for you, this time from UK talk radio station LBC: â admits to performing hypnotherapy to âenlargeâ womenâs breasts in the pastâ. Apparently, Zack Polanski of the UKâs Green party worked at a London hypnotherapy clinic in 2013, where he used hypnosis with the aim of helping women grow bigger bosoms. This was reported on by The Sun newspaper at the time, under the inevitable headline ââ. Polanski has since apologised for this stage of his career.
Setting aside the ethics of this, neuroscientist Dean Burnett was , in the same way that drivers are fascinated by crashes, to wonder if there was any potential mechanism for it. After all, the mind and body are closely linked, to the point that our mental state can influence our immune system and gut health. And Burnett notes that âthereâs a condition in women known as , where the patient Ÿ±ČőČÔât pregnant, but legitimately believes she is, and so displays the symptoms of being legitimately pregnant. Including enlarged and lactating mammariesâ.
If youâre starting to wonder if Polanski might have been onto something, stop it now. Burnett describes that line of reasoning as âa very stark example âŠof how easy it is to construct a convincing-sounding argument via very selective cherry picking of useful dataâ. He goes on to demonstrate that hypnosis is nowhere near as powerful as it would need to be to act as a breast-enlargement tool.
Also, if hypnosis really were that effective, why wouldnât the newly embiggened breasts also start producing milk?
Heroin and chips
On the ongoing theme of spurious correlations (Feedback, 5 July), Martin Couchman flags Tyler Vigenâs delightful site. At , you will find a vast catalogue of correlations that donât mean anything at all. For instance, correlates beautifully with successful climbs of Mount Everest, and has declined in lockstep with the fall in numbers of library technicians in Iowa.
Those are pretty silly, but we can go sillier. Barry Dexter writes in to tell us of a statement he used while teaching, which made it clear to his students that correlation doesnât equal causation â âat least I think it didâ, he adds conscientiously. The statement: âEvery heroin addict started on milk.â
Finally, Dan Salmons tells us of his stint working for âa well-known credit card companyâ at the time when chip and PIN technology was first introduced. âI was able to show my colleagues that the volume of cards in circulation was very nicely correlated with the price[s] of potatoes and steel,â says Dan. âWhich of course, is exactly what youâd expect, since these are what chips and pins are made of.â
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