鈥淭here is a benefit to drinking beer before having an X-ray.鈥�
Koichi Ando of Japan鈥檚 National Institute of Radiological Sciences, who found an ingredient in beer that helps reduce chromosomal damage from radiation (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo, 12 August)
鈥淲hy should I do something that Congress and the president have decided they don鈥檛 want to do as a matter of policy?鈥�
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Federal judge Loretta Preska on the claim by eight US states that power companies should cut their carbon dioxide emissions (CBS News, 13 August)
鈥淚t鈥檚 likely that the only thing people will pay attention to is what an obnoxious jerk you are for monitoring them to see if they鈥檙e a jerk.鈥�
Mike Masnick of corporate analysis firm Techdirt, on the Jerk-O-Meter, which analyses mobile phone calls to see how engaged people are in conversations (The Daily Telegraph, London, 13 August)
鈥淔lowers contain all the goods that a bee needs, and selection has therefore favoured bees with aesthetic preferences for flowers which offer the best bonanzas.鈥�
Behavioural ecologist Lars Chittka of Queen Mary, University of London, on why bumblebees are more likely to land on van Gogh鈥檚 Sunflowers than other equally vivid paintings (The Independent, London, 15 August)
鈥淭hey tear limbs off each other and despite all the microbes, they heal up very rapidly and almost always without infection.鈥�
Biochemist Mark Merchant, who has been taking blood samples from crocodiles in Australia鈥檚 Northern Territory in the hope of developing an antibiotic for humans (The Australian, Sydney, 16 August)