WHILE many geneticists make do with unpronounceable strings of letters and digits to name their discoveries, by tradition fruit-fly folk get to call them what they like.
One of their better-known examples is Sonic Hedgehog, which came about when researchers ran out of real hedgehog names for a family of genes for spikiness and, no doubt with a total absence of hilarity, plumped for a video-game character.
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But there is another fruit-fly name that has apparently been lurking in the labs for quite some time without us knowing it. Step forward the I鈥檓 not dead yet gene and take a well deserved bow 鈥� the more so because, intriguingly and illogically, mutations that disable this gene make the fly live longer. There are many more such names at .
LOGOTECHNICIANS 鈥� those who come up with names for new things 鈥� must always beware the risk of heteroradicalism. This useful word, as a reader called Arkady English points out, means 鈥渇rom mixed roots鈥� and describes that bane of pedants everywhere: words such as 鈥渢elevision鈥� whose parts come from more than one language (鈥渢ele鈥� from the Greek for 鈥渇ar鈥�; 鈥渧ision鈥� from the Latin for 鈥渟ee鈥�).
Heteroradicalism is itself derived from the Greek heteros, 鈥渕ixed or different鈥�, and the Latin radix, 鈥渞oot鈥�. Of course. And if Arkady English is someone鈥檚 real name, they would appear to be heteroradical themselves.
ONCE upon a time there was a baseball team called the California Angels. Then they became the Anaheim Angels. Now they鈥檝e decided that this is over-restricting the market for their merchandise, and they want to associate themselves with the metropolis to the north-west by re-re-naming themselves The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
鈥淭he weight of the Ultralite II 900 midi sleeping bag, according to vango.co.uk, is 0g. Presumably it contains no chemicals鈥�
And thus they enter Feedback鈥檚 very own Hall of Fame, the one for redundant translation syndrome (2 April). For not only is 鈥淭he The Angels Angels of Anaheim鈥� redundant, it looks recursive too. Now, can the La Brea Tar Pits neighbourhood of Los Angeles (21 May) muster a team?
REPORTING on the successful landing of the space shuttle earlier this month, BBC news online announced, perhaps a little breathlessly, that Discovery touched down 鈥渁t about 322km/h (200mph) 鈥� roughly 20 times the speed at which a commercial plane approaches the ground鈥�.
What Simon Painter wants to know is: how do those planes m aintain enough lift to stop them stalling and crashing into the runway? Malcolm J. Muckle, another of several readers to spot this, suggests that maybe the gravity鈥檚 a bit thin at Andrews Air Force base. But it鈥檚 so simple. It must be that Area 51 anti-gravity technology. It鈥檚 such a cosmic secret NASA itself has forgotten planes regularly put it to use.
HEADLINESE is a wonderful language, capable of concision and precision. However, Feedback is puzzling over this, from : 鈥淎cupuncture has scientific effect on brain: study鈥�.
We鈥檙e drawn to the interpretation that suggests acupuncture inclines brains toward study of a scientific kind. But then, surely, those brains would conclude that chakras are cobblers and the acupuncture would stop working, leaving the brains less scientific, after which鈥�
NOW that Feedback has sorted out Inverclyde Council鈥檚 morally spotless website and most of its references to the 鈥渕ussels and *bleep*les鈥� of the Clyde estuary (28 May), it鈥檚 time to move on. For example to , the site of a renewable energy company. Follow the link for their 鈥淧acific 100鈥� product and you will be informed that its 鈥渟ealed pivot and slip ring assembly allows unlimited weather*bleep*ing.鈥�
Martin Stuart, who spotted this, finds it 鈥渕ost amusing鈥� but neglects to suggest what the original word might have been. Feedback feels grubby but smug for happening to know that 鈥渨eathercocking鈥� in nautical speech means turning to the wind.
WE found many rude words while looking for more examples of diontologias 鈥� statements that can be doubly true at the same time, such as 鈥淭his is a cat scan鈥� (20 August). There used to be a website called cat-scan.com, concerned with 鈥渃omputerised feline tomography鈥�. It disappeared in mid-2003, but through the magic of you can see some very strange examples of scanned cats. Despite the facts that absolutely no tomography was involved, there were firm instructions to avoid feline faces and at least one online reviewer insisted she had to fight her cats for possession of her scanner, the site attracted some very vituperative responses from cat-lovers.
One friend of ours suggested that diontologias are simply double entendres, but others made the distinction clear by throwing up numerous examples that are unprintable in a family science magazine. In the silence that ensued, another uttered 鈥淔eedback has been sent to Coventry鈥�.
We couldn鈥檛 help remembering this as we sat forlorn, unwilling and alone on a train about to depart to that very town.