THE normally erudite British Medical Journal made news with a lighter than usual end-of-year issue that among other things reported a bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of Martinis-shaken, of course. It also debated the question of whether surgeons swear while operating, tracked the frequency of certain people鈥檚 names at genito-urinary clinics, and published MRI images of couples who had volunteered to copulate in a scanner, revealing that in the missionary position, the penis becomes shaped like a boomerang.
What caught Feedback鈥檚 eye though, was the article entitled 鈥淯nsafe sax鈥�, a study of the effect of playing the saxophone on the mortality of famous jazz musicians. The gist of the piece is that sax players die young because they practise circular breathing. To produce a continuous sound, they suck air in through the nose and blow it straight into the instrument, causing potentially dangerous stress to the neck. The authors say they would like funding to travel the world visiting jazz clubs and concerts to further their research.
Feedback thinks this is a fine study, but is surprised that a side benefit of circular breathing was not mentioned. If they are foolish enough to be driving after a few drinks and are asked by the police to blow into a breathalyser, several sax players have been pleased to discover that the musical trick lets them deliver clean, pure air into the bag, largely untainted by alcohol from the bloodstream.
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THERE are no advanced extraterrestrial civilisations in Earth鈥檚 immediate vicinity, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke told a United Nations forum recently. The proof? Our television programmes are so bad.
His logic is this. Since television signals radiate outwards from the Earth at the speed of light, our televised legacy now fills a sphere more than 100 light years in diameter. And since no alien police force has yet arrived to put an end to the nuisance, there can be no advanced civilisation anywhere in that vast region.
QED.
BUT then again, perhaps the aliens have already arrived. A small ad in the South London Press on 17 December read: 鈥淪irian passport lost near Victoria station, 5 weeks ago, call鈥︹��
ONE of Feedback鈥檚 older colleagues can recall the time when groups such as the YMCA recommended cold showers for young men whose sexual desires were raging out of control. (Young women, of course, did not have sexual desires in those days.)
The relationship between cold water and sexual arousal has surfaced again in recent work by an anaesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who has found that indulging in sexual fantasies enabled his subjects to keep their hands in ice-cold water longer.
But Peter Staats is not about to train polar explorers, rather he is looking at the links between emotions and pain. His student volunteers were assigned to four groups: one was told to think of a preferred sexual fantasy, one a non-preferred sexual fantasy, one a neutral fantasy and one was not told what to think about at all. The subjects in the preferred sexual fantasy group were able to keep their hands in the ice water for 3 minutes, versus just over 1 minute for the others. They were also 鈥渓ess anxious, depressed and angry鈥�.
Staats concludes that physicians should seek to counterbalance pain with strong positive emotions. One of the important considerations, he adds, is the doctor鈥檚 bedside manner. Feedback hopes he is no longer talking about sexual fantasies here-even 鈥渘on-preferred鈥� ones.
IT IS always a challenge to come up with a clever Christmas greeting and doubly so one that is relevant to the mission of a company or research lab. The Photonics Center at Boston University impressed Feedback last month by putting a blue nose on the reindeer on its Christmas card.
Usually the nose would be red, just like Rudolph鈥檚 in the popular song, but in the photonics world red, as in red LEDs, is easy to make. Blue LEDs were a much tougher challenge, and have been a big success story over the past few years. While Boston University鈥檚 researchers can鈥檛 claim to have invented the blue LED, they are probably the first to put the image of one onto a reindeer.
A red nose, of course, is a traditional sign of drunkenness. So what does a blue one mean? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition is as much a contrast as the colour. In American parlance, a bluenose is 鈥渁 person who advocates a rigorous moral code鈥�. Does this mean that Prudence the blue-nosed reindeer is the one who frowns when Rudolph staggers in at night after a few too many beers?
FINALLY, Jonathan Potter tells us that he bought a plastic blow-up Christmas tree before the festive season. Not having seen one of these, we find it somewhat difficult to imagine, but enjoyed the warning that Potter says came with it: 鈥淭his item is not a lifesaving device. Use under adult supervision. This item is not to be eaten or burned.鈥�