WE LEARN from a recent news release that shock absorbers may one
day be made of chocolate. The idea is inspired by a curious discovery that
comes, so we are told, from Michigan State University. A graduate student in
engineering, Christopher R. Daubert, and his professor, James Steffe, found that
when a strong enough electric field is applied to molten Hershey chocolate bars
an almost instantaneous change occurs: the thin chocolate liquid becomes a stiff
gel. When the power is shut off, it reverts to a liquid just as fast.
Isn鈥檛 it interesting what science comes up with these days? But Gary Sabot,
writing to a mailing list on the Internet, is underimpressed. He wants to know
just how the two engineers happened to be applying moderately high-voltage
electric fields to molten Hershey bars. Did someone leave their snack lying
around on the experimental apparatus, where it was melted by the sun, and was
unnoticed when the electricity was applied? Or did they successfully apply to
the National Science Foundation with a proposal for research into 鈥淭he Effects
of Moderately High-Voltage Electric Fields on Confectionery鈥�?
Feedback, too, would like to know the answers to these questions.
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BASIL DROLIAS writes to point out that the attempt by the US to invade
countries with first letters that spell out the phrase 鈥淓LVIS IS KING鈥�
(Feedback, 21 September) was thrown out of kilter with the invasion of Panama.
Unless, as he points out, the intention was actually to form the phrase 鈥淜ING鈥橲
笔贰尝痴滨厂鈥�.
A CALIFORNIA couple can boast that they now have a stranglehold on
sales of one of the world鈥檚 least-known insects鈥攖he house non-fly. Loren
and Mary Testa actually call the bugs, which they raise in their living room,
鈥渇lightless houseflies鈥�, and they are the fruit of years of research at various
institutions around the globe.
The Testas knew that there was a market for such non-flies, because labs and
private individuals who raise lizards, frogs and toads regard houseflies as
ideal food. Normal, flying flies are raised commercially but are less than ideal
because they tend to fly away before you can close your iguana cage after
opening the fly box.
The long road to success took the Testas through experiments with fruit flies
as well as house flies, and involved consultations with fly specialists all over
the world. Hope dawned when they discovered a group British scientists raising
non-flies to feed their poison-arrow frogs, but the line of flies died off
before the Testas could get a permit to import them.
Finally, however, they located a breeding stock. 鈥淭hese flies are a mixed
genetic batch of wavy, curled, vestigial and nonwinged individuals. When
nonwinged flies are selected to breed, there is some sort of lethal gene that
causes the flies to be sterile. When selecting for curly wing, they do not breed
true. So the genetics are not simply a matter of selecting a phenotype,鈥� Loren
Testa comments. The Testas now share the US market with a company that raises
non-flies for schools.
叠搁滨罢础滨狈鈥檚 patent agents are feeling a little happier with their image these
days. Like the civil engineers, who until recently were classified in the
Yellow Pages under 鈥淏oring鈥�, patent agents have suffered from unfortunate
contextualisation, being grouped in the heading in the corner of each page with
their near and dear alphabetical neighbours, as:
鈥淧atent Agents鈥擯ests & Vermin.鈥�
In current editions, an extra category has been introduced that is much more
to the patent agent鈥檚 liking. The agents and the pests are now separated by
鈥淧别谤蹿耻尘别鈥�.
Meanwhile, Veronika Smith writes from Tasmania to tell us that in her local
Yellow Pages, 鈥淓rection Engineers鈥� suffered a fate even more unnerving
than being classified as boring. They were listed between 鈥淓arth Moving鈥� and
鈥淓scort Agencies鈥�.
WHAT FOLLOWS is a story off the Internet which may not be the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth, but which does have a delightful ring of
plausibility about it.
Back in the late 1960s, when the US Gemini space programme was orbiting two
astronauts at a time, it was discovered that ballpoint pens would not write in
the zero gravity of a space vehicle.
NASA鈥檚 space scientists studied the problem, spent a few million dollars and
invented the 鈥淪pace Pen鈥�, which could write in zero gravity, upside-down, or
anywhere else. The pen even enjoyed a brief popularity as a consumer item.
The Soviet Union鈥檚 cosmonauts experienced a similar problem with their pens.
Their solution? Use a pencil.
Interesting how people learn how to use their resources more efficiently when
they haven鈥檛 got many.
ON 28 SEPTEMBER we published a piece on interesting names given to
fruit fly proteins. One of these was an extremely long chemical name. Now Kevin
Greenslade writes to tell us the proper name of the immunosuppressant
tacrolimus, which is colloquially known as FK-506.
Its real name is, so Greenslade tells us:
(-)-(1R,9S,12S,13R,14S,17R,18E,21S,23S,24R,25S,27R)-17-allyl-1,
14-dihydroxy-12-[(E)-2-[(1R,3R,4R)-4-hydroxy-3-methoxycyclohexyl]-1-methylvinyl]-23,
25-dimethoxy-13,19,21,27-tetramethyl-11,28-dioxa-4-azatricyclo-[22.3.1.0(4.9)]
octacos-18-ene-2,3,10,16-te hydrate.
We think we will stick to FK-506.
FRUSTRATION and computers all too often go hand in hand. Andrew
Sherman found a poem on the Internet which touches on the sense of helplessness
that computers can engender. Sherman doesn鈥檛 know who the author of the poem is,
and neither do we. But here, to give a flavour, are the first two verses:
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort.
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted `cause the index doesn鈥檛 hash.
Then your situation鈥檚 hopeless and your system鈥檚 gonna crash.