THE Genetics Forum is a pressure group which lobbies vociferously against what it sees as unethical practices in biotechnology and genetic engineering. In its latest monthly bulletin, The Splice of Life, it carried a pithy but predictable rant about the iniquities of the recent Ciba Foundation conference in London which explored possible links between genetic make up and crime.
In particular, the bulletin deplores what it sees as society鈥檚 unequal treatment of 鈥渟treet鈥� and 鈥渨hite-collar鈥� crime. It suggests, mischievously, that it would 鈥渦ndoubtedly be illuminating if there was a well-funded research programme to investigate the genetic basis of financial greed, not because it would reveal anything, but because of the uproar it would generate amongst greedy people鈥�.
In the light of the Barings Bank saga, Feedback wonders whether such research might be of value to the banking community, which might now be especially keen to screen out crooked job applicants. On the other hand, were such a 鈥済reed gene鈥� to exist, it would probably be demanded as a prerequisite for joining certain financial institutions, notably the boards of privatised utilities.
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FOND memories of the 鈥渟tinks鈥� teachers of the old days, with their blithe disregard for their pupils鈥� safety, were provoked by our story about a 1950s chemistry experiment in a 鈥渃oalshed or some other equally grimy place鈥� (4 March).
J. J. L. Weaver remembers fifth formers being treated to a demonstration of the freezing properties of liquid hydrogen. An S-shaped groove in a block of wood was filled with mercury. Liquid hydrogen was poured over it, freezing it solid. The mercury was then used to suspend a 15-kilogram weight a metre above the floor.
When the mercury melted, the weight crashed to the floor with a satisfying bang. No attempt was made to clean up the mercury. It remained glistening in the cracks between the floorboards and was still there years later when Weaver revisited the school.
DARRELL Evans likewise remembers a teacher鈥檚 fondness for mercury. In his case, a spoonful of it was passed round the entire class, with each pupil rolling the stuff around in the hand before passing it on.
Evans also recalls taking an empty golden syrup tin with a hole in the top and another on the side, and holding it above a gas outlet. He then had to place it on a bench and set the gas alight through a hole in the top. After a couple of minutes, there was a loud explosion and the tin flew up in the air, to be deftly caught by the teacher.
鈥淣ow you know about the explosive properties of gas and air,鈥� said the teacher cheerfully.
AND F. J. Moorhouse remembers the following:
Teacher: 鈥淣ow, boys, we are about to demonstrate an exothermic reaction.鈥� (Writes on blackboard.)
Boys: 鈥淵es, sir.鈥�
Teacher: 鈥淲e take a piece of calcium hydroxide in a pair of tongs and hold it over a bunsen burner until it glows. We then leave it to cool.鈥�
(Boys do as they鈥檙e told, then scribble notes while the substance cools.)
Teacher: 鈥淲e now have calcium oxide. Put a largish piece in the palm of your hand and allow water to drip from the tap onto it.鈥�
(Boys do so.)
Teacher: 鈥淭his is called 鈥︹��
Boys: 鈥淎aaaagh!鈥�
Teacher: 鈥溾�� an exothermic reaction. If any of you had kept the piece of material in your hands, you would have seen the reconstituted calcium hydroxide.鈥�
The resulting blister lasted several days, Moorhouse says, leaving the boys with an indelible memory of what an exothermic reaction was.
AMERICA鈥檚 budget deficit is having a strange effect on some people鈥檚 attitudes. NASA, for example, has already had to cancel its SETI programme to detect extra terrestrial life, and trim back its plans for a space station. But the attempt to prune the $14 billion the agency spends each year continues.
A colleague on New 杏吧原创 encountered the new penny-pinching mentality when seeking information on the latest NASA Discovery mission: a 拢59 million Lunar Prospector. NASA couldn鈥檛 send its relevant press release to London because the fax lines from its newsroom are restricted to the US. So the organisation which put a man on the Moon is now apparently unable to send a fax across the Atlantic. How times change.
CENSORSHIP of items during British Science Week hardly seems appropriate, given that the idea is to reach as many of the 鈥渟cientifically unwashed鈥� as possible. But the University of Salford probably had good reason to label its item at 3 pm on 23 March as 鈥淐ertificate 15鈥�. The name of the talk: 鈥淎lien 4 鈥� the tapeworms鈥�. Pass the sickbag, please!
CODE names can say a lot about the people who devise them. Take, for example, the group at AT&T Bell Labs that is developing a powerful new operating system to handle streams of high-speed data, including voice and video. What they call 鈥淧lan 9鈥� started as a potential successor to the Unix computer operating system, but Bell Labs have lately adapted it for use in set-top boxes to connect television sets with video networks.
The developers were movie buffs, and they took the name from the Ed Wood horror film Plan 9 From Outer Space. Yes, that Plan 9, often called the worst film ever made. Feedback wonders if the new operating system is quite that diabolical.
HOW many readers have attempted to play 鈥淰ish鈥�, the game we mentioned on 25 February which involves following sequences of definitions in a dictionary until one of them refers back to the word you started with? Colin Singleton suggests an altemative game, using a thesaurus. The challenge is to find the shortest chain of synonyms which leads to the opposite of the word you start with.
Singleton found the following example in his on-line Thesaurus: 鈥淕ood 鈥� competent 鈥� appropriate 鈥� seize 鈥� get 鈥� influence 鈥� bias 鈥� prejudice 鈥� mischief 鈥� evil.鈥�
INHABITANTS of Rochdale, beware. Computer spellcheckers are out to embarrass you 鈥� or at least, the Word-Perfect phonetic spellchecker is. Not recognising the existence of your fine city, it suggests only one alternative: 鈥淩ectal鈥�.