THE HUMAN genome has been decoded. What鈥檚 more, genetic engineering has
advanced to the point where not only humans, but plants and animals too can be
genetically modified at will. What should this power be used for?
That鈥檚 the world you need to imagine for this year鈥檚 Feedback summer
competition. Are there individuals or groups of people who you feel would
benefit from having their genes altered? Are there plants you would like to see
growing in a different way, or animals whose behaviour could usefully be
modified? Perhaps you would even like to genetically modify yourself?
Send us three suggestions as your entry. Thanks to the generosity of the
manufacturers, 20 winners will each receive a bottle of Laphroaig single Islay
malt whisky鈥攖he whisky 鈥渢o which all true whisky drinkers will eventually
驳谤补诲耻补迟别鈥�.
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You may enter the competition by post, fax or e-mail. All entries must reach
us by Monday 25 August. The editor鈥檚 decision is final.
HAS SOMEONE AT NASA gone a bit soft in the head? Granted, the landing of the
Pathfinder mission on Mars is a great achievement, and the occasional bit of
sentimentality over it is understandable. But the anthropomorphism being applied
to the project is getting out of hand.
鈥淎t 3.45 PDT today,鈥� NASA told us on 6 July, 鈥渢he operations team at JPL
`woke up鈥� the rover by playing Final Frontier, the theme song from the
television programme Mad About You, in keeping with the
traditional wake-up songs used to rouse astronauts during space shuttle
尘颈蝉蝉颈辞苍蝉.鈥�
Worse still, when the rover, Sojourner Truth, was photographed examining a
Martian rock nicknamed 鈥淏arnacle Bill鈥�, NASA informed the world: 鈥淗ere we have
proof that Sojourner sort of nestled up and kissed Barnacle Bill.鈥�
Yuk! No more, please.
THE PRIZE for the most original paper presented to the Fifth European
Congress of Psychology in Dublin earlier this month goes to Karine Weiss and
Gabriel Moser of the Laboratory of Environmental Psychology in Paris, whose work
was entitled 鈥淚nterpersonal relationships in isolation and confinement:
long-term bed rest in head-down tilt position鈥�.
This was a study of how relationships develop between invalids whose total
incapacitation and proximity to each other in a hospital room rob them of all
privacy. The abstract did not reveal the outcomes of those relationships, except
to hint darkly that in one case the experiment had to be abandoned.
A CLOSE RUNNER-UP to Weiss and Moser in the originality contest was Asja Nina
Kovacev of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, for her paper 鈥淔urnishing and
decoration of apartments鈥�.
Kovacev chose to plunge into previously uncharted psychological territory by
asking for the first (and possibly the last) time what it is about the way a
flat is decorated that makes a person perceive it as perfect, attractive or
luxurious. Having asked her subjects to pick out pieces of furniture and choose
a suitable colour scheme, she proved her prediction that colour and form were of
鈥渄ecisive importance鈥�. Indeed.
BUT PERHAPS the most fascinating paper of all was the one about stereotypical
attitudes towards blondes, redheads and brunettes. The study found women tended
to live up to the stereotypical image suggested by their hair colour, so the
鈥渂ubbly dumb鈥� blondes scored dramatically higher on being extrovert, the 鈥渇iery
and dangerous鈥� redheads were less likely to conform socially, and the 鈥渟ensible
homemaker鈥� brunettes scored higher on the lie scale, which means they were more
likely to give the answers they thought the questioner wanted to hear鈥攊n
other words, to conform.
What interested Feedback most about this study was the behaviour of one of
its researchers, Laura Pierce. For reasons that we have been unable to
ascertain, Pierce was fair-haired at the time she did the experiment two years
ago. She has since dyed her hair darker鈥攖urning herself from blonde to
brunette.
CHRIS CORBETTIS noticed an interesting claim in the latest review produced by
PowerGen for its shareholders. The privatised generating company helpfully
states that: 鈥淓lectricity can鈥檛 be stored. It鈥檚 impossible to stockpile it.鈥�
Corbettis is puzzled. He can鈥檛 understand why his personal stereo keeps
functioning.
LONDONERS used to be so accustomed to the smog that they would comment
scathingly about 鈥渇resh air鈥� from the countryside, saying that they didn鈥檛 trust
air they couldn鈥檛 see.
Now, according to The Washington Post, Senator C. Bernard Fowler has
applied this notion to water by developing the Bernie Fowler Sneaker Index. The
idea is to see how far he has to wade into water before he can鈥檛 see his shoes.
Every year for the past ten years, the senator has waded into the Patuxent River
in southern Maryland to test the cleanliness of the water.
This year Fowler waded in up to his chest before he lost sight of his white
sneakers, putting the Sneaker Index at 44 inches. Ten years ago he couldn鈥檛 see
his feet after wading in 10 inches. Feedback is now looking for volunteers to
try a similar scheme for the River Thames.
FOR YEARS, men worried about being exposed to radiation would wear lead
underwear to protect their future offspring. Now, according to the US Food and
Drug Administration, they may have been making a dangerous mistake.
The authority says that some lead aprons used for radiation protection have
been found to be contaminated with naturally occurring radionuclides. Although
evaluations of these hot aprons show there is only a small exposure to
radioactivity, people who use them are being advised to replace their
equipment鈥攁nd get their gonads checked.