A COUPLE of weeks ago, while handing out the National Medals of Science and
Technology in the East Room of the White House, President Clinton shared his
favourite example of 鈥渁 practical gain from a scientific advance鈥�.
It seems that astronaut Neil Armstrong presented him with a lump of Moon rock
to keep on loan in the Oval Office. When foreign leaders or Congressional
representatives get into heated arguments over policy issues, Clinton told the
assembled boffins, he often calls a break to show everyone his space rock.
鈥淚t works every time,鈥� he said, adding that he points out that the rock is
billions of years old. His guests apparently get the not-so-subtle message that
鈥渨e鈥檙e just passing through, so chill out鈥�.
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We wonder how many times his aides have seen this, and if they鈥檙e sick of it
yet.
SADLY, we missed one of the highlights of Britain鈥檚 Science Week last month
鈥攖he Organ and Tissue Donation Roadshow. According to the publicity, the
roadshow consisted of an introductory talk, video film and a 鈥渞ecipient talk鈥�,
followed by questions and answers, and comment.
The topics addressed included 鈥渙rgans, tissues, beating/non-beating heart,
dead donors, transplants and waiting list, live donors, law, religion, race,
xenotransplantation, cloning, video of donor and patient/family case history and
eight recipient accounts鈥�.
What thrills and spills.
ONE way to cheat death is to become an accountant, it seems. The Norfolk
accountancy firm W. R. Kewley announces on its website that it was 鈥渙riginally
established in 1982 with 2 partners, one of whom died in 1993. After a short
break he re-established in 1997, offering a personal service throughout.鈥�
He was, Feedback presumes, dead only for tax purposes.
HERE is a letter we received from Tony Park, which we publish without
comment.
鈥淒ear Feedback, I鈥檝e been taking Strepsils Pain Relief Plus for a sore throat
recently. Among the instructions is the following: `Consult your doctor if
symptoms persist, are accompanied by high fever or headache, or if anything
unusual happens.鈥�
鈥淒oes this mean I should contact my doctor if you actually publish this
濒别迟迟别谤?鈥�
AND here is another of those scientific titles that are so teasingly opaque
to people who don鈥檛 work in the field concerned. A recent seminar in the biology
department of Imperial College, London, on cell signalling was entitled:
鈥淗edgehog Signalling and Muscle Cell Type Specification in the Zebrafish鈥�.
We are assured that this really does mean something, but it would take a cell
biologist to tell us what.
TEXAS beachcomber Barney Corey is apparently feeling aggrieved with NASA.
According to Associated Press, specialists from the agency travelled to the
Texas coast early in March to identify what was thought to be a piece of a
French rocket. They wanted to determine if the dome-shaped object found on
Mustang Island was a nose cone from an Ariane 5 booster. But when they arrived,
the plastic foam object had vanished.
A local policemen came up with the key to the mystery. He said that whenever
a salvageable item washed up on the beach, Corey would find a use for
it鈥攁nd the object was indeed tracked down to Corey鈥檚 home in Port
Aransas.
Corey was not at all pleased. He was hoping to use his find for a hot
tub.
PERHAPS the question was a deliberate mistake intended to put students on
their mettle. Even so, we feel a sense of sympathy for the youngsters sitting
the physics paper in the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education鈥檚 examination
Madhyamic Priksha, the equivalent of the British GCSE. One of the questions they
were confronted with was: 鈥淲hat is the melting point of a liquid?鈥�
THE excellent magazine Popular Science recently carried an article
entitled 鈥淏-3 and Beyond鈥�, which included this surprising statement: 鈥淭o solve
heat-management problems in a hypersonic bomber, new exotic fuels that can be
cooled to thousands of degrees below zero, such as liquid hydrogen or methane,
will be required to power the craft.鈥�
Popular science indeed.
ONE has to feel sorry for the researchers at Proctor & Gamble, makers of
Fairy washing-up liquid. A few months ago the label on the bottles had a banner
proclaiming 鈥�100 Years of Innovation鈥�. But it seems that all those years of work
had been futile, since the product was described just below this banner as being
the 鈥淥riginal鈥�.
Now it seems there has at last been a breakthrough. The liquid in the bottle
currently possessed by reader Michael McElligot is described as
鈥淭别肠丑苍辞谤颈驳颈苍补濒鈥�.
We would be highly impressed by the researchers鈥� efforts, if only we knew
what this means.
FINALLY, like the headline writers we mentioned last week, Tesco is never
afraid of stating the blindingly obvious. Witness the bags of oranges the
supermarket sells, which offer this helpful advice to prospective buyers: 鈥淚deal
for eating.鈥�