GOOD for The New England Journal of Medicine. Among the most persistent and annoying of the spammers who clog Feedback鈥檚 inbox are those trying to sell us human growth hormone. 鈥淭urn back time on your body鈥檚 biological clock twenty years with just six months of use,鈥� runs the subject line of the latest. It goes on to claim: 鈥淟eading experts of The New England Journal of Medicine report that hGH therapy makes you feel and look almost 20 years younger.鈥� And the spam provides a link to an article on the NEJM website which would appear to endorse the supposed benefits of hGH.
But it seems the NEJM editors are fed up with their journal being used in this way. The article in question 鈥� an account of a small-scale study in 1990 by D. Rudman and colleagues 鈥� is still there. But so is this prominent announcement: 鈥淓ditor鈥檚 note, posted 26 February 2003: this article has been cited in potentially misleading email advertisements. To give readers more complete information, the full text of the article, its accompanying editorial, and more recent articles about advertising dietary supplements and the question of growth hormone鈥檚 role in the aging process have been made available online at no charge.鈥�
There follows a list of links to articles pointing out the limitations of the Rudman study and detailing subsequent investigations. The most up-to-date of these, 鈥淐an growth hormone prevent aging?鈥� by Mary Lee Vance (published last month in NEJM, vol 348, p 779), argues that 鈥済oing to the gym is [more] beneficial and certainly cheaper than growth hormones鈥� and concludes that 鈥渁nti-aging therapy with growth hormone has not yet been proved effective according to objective outcome criteria鈥�.
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We hope the hGH spammers will continue to direct people to this excellent website which so thoroughly debunks the claims they make for their product. See content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/9/779?query=TOC
IT鈥橲 the talk of academic common rooms across the US. After years on the receiving end of ratings, students can now get their own back. The website allows students to rate over 100,000 academics at more than 2500 American colleges and universities.
The site was set up to help students choose the classes they wish to take, based on the experiences of others. And judging by the comments about their professors on the site, they don鈥檛 pull their punches.
鈥淣ot only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality,鈥� says one. 鈥淏ring a pillow,鈥� advises another.
Now the academics are beginning to take note. Feedback recently overheard the head of a leading physics department complain that only one person in his department had received a good rating. Of course, there is one way to ensure a good rating 鈥� by entering it yourself. But surely no professor would ever stoop that low. That would be cheating, wouldn鈥檛 it?
OUR story about 鈥淕areth Thomas鈥� and his hoax website promoting a fictional therapy called crystal homeopathy was widely disseminated 鈥� so much so that Thomas reports over 16,000 hits on in the first few days after the story appeared (Feedback, 1 March).
Sadly, not all the visitors were merely curious to see the hoax for themselves. It seems that as the story spread wider and wider 鈥� popping up, for example, on James Randi鈥檚 website and subsequently on various New Age websites 鈥� knowledge of the site somehow became uncoupled from the knowledge that it was a deliberate fake. Thomas now reports despairingly that more people have tried to purchase his 鈥渉omeopathic crystals鈥� since he revealed the hoax than before.
When it comes to exposing people鈥檚 credulity, it seems you just can鈥檛 win.
WHAT鈥橲 in a packet of jelly? Tony Caldersmith tells us he bought a twin packet of 鈥淥riginal Strawberry and Orange Jelly鈥� made by J W Food of Sumner Park, Queensland. The ingredients, he says, were identical for both the strawberry and orange jellies, and included 鈥渨ater, apple juice, thickeners, food acids, flavour and colour鈥�, but no sign of strawberries or oranges. What鈥檚 more, the packet suggests that the jelly 鈥渘eeds no refrigeration, best served chilled鈥�.
IN A similar vein, reader Susan Doshi reports the state of quantum uncertainty she found herself in when she bought a packet of nectarines from a Waitrose supermarket. It advised her that they required further ripening at room temperature 鈥� and that she should refrigerate them after purchase.
FINALLY, reader Howell Peregrine notes that men wanting to go on the 鈥淎rctic Experience鈥� cruise to Disko Bay in Greenland this summer face a problem when it comes to booking a cabin. A note in the brochure tells them: 鈥淣ote: number of births in cabin must equal party size.鈥�
Does this mean men can go only if their partner is expecting twins?
AS FAR as geeks are concerned, the old jokes are still the best. Reader Alistair Stewart reports ruefully that you can now buy T-shirts bearing the legend: 鈥淭here are 10 kinds of people 鈥� those who understand binary, and those who don鈥檛鈥�