AN EMAIL from Andrew Rankine raises concerns about Dr Frank鈥檚 Pet Pain Spray, a homeopathic treatment for cats and dogs suffering from arthritis. It set us ferreting around, and we soon found a on James Randi鈥檚 quack-busting website. Here we came across a notion that hadn鈥檛 previously occurred to us, despite it being so obvious. Perhaps homeopathic treatments for animals are said to 鈥渨ork鈥� not because the animals report feeling better 鈥� how could they? 鈥� but because their owners and the homeopaths who treat them report that they are better. It鈥檚 the placebo effect again, but the effect is vicarious, working on the owners and homeopathic veterinarians, not the animals.
By way of an anecdotal example, a link on the Randi site takes us to a on the website of the wonderfully named . Here 鈥渁 veterinary surgeon from East Sussex鈥� reports on a client who brought in a dog with a skin problem, but who refused to allow the vet to do the requisite tests. Instead, he announced he was 鈥渙ff to see the local homeopath鈥�. A couple of months later he returned with the dog, saying: 鈥淚 just wanted to let you see what a brilliant job the homeopath did when you were completely useless.鈥�
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The vet comments: 鈥淲hat could I say? The dog stood there, to my eyes actually slightly worse than it had been on the day I鈥檇 last seen it. Frankly, it looked just awful. But in the owner鈥檚 eyes there had been a massive improvement. I think this is how homoeopathy 鈥榳orks鈥� in quite a lot of cases. Somebody wants to believe the animal is better, so it is better.鈥�
There is, however, a further possibility which is raised by one of the contributors to the Randi discussion. If the owner is happy because they believe a homeopathic treatment has made their dog better, then perhaps their happiness will make the dog feel happier too 鈥� and as the vicarious placebo effects bounce back and forth, perhaps all this happiness will assist the dog鈥檚 recovery from the condition it is being treated for. So perhaps homeopathy for pets can sometimes 鈥渨ork鈥� after all.
HERE is a Large Hadron Collider story that slipped though our files at the time of the collider鈥檚 activation at CERN last month but has surfaced again. Marylin Ennis tells us she was inspired by an old New 杏吧原创 story about people placing bets on whether the LHC would find the Higgs boson when it went into operation (New杏吧原创.com news service, 26 August 2004). She phoned Ladbrokes betting office in Belfast, UK, and asked, 鈥淒o you take unusual bets?鈥�
鈥淵es, love, what is it?鈥�
鈥淭here is a big experiment going to take place soon in Switzerland and I want to place a bet on the Higgs boson being found at the LHC at CERN.鈥�
鈥淎 what?鈥�
鈥淥h dear, its hard to explain.鈥�
鈥淚s it a horse?鈥�
鈥淣o it鈥檚 a particle. It鈥檚 really small.鈥�
鈥淟ove, I don鈥檛 know what you鈥檙e talking about, you need to phone head office in London.鈥�
Sadly, after three days of Marylin鈥檚 enquiries, Ladbrokes declined to take the bet. But she says there is now a hot tip circulating in Belfast for Higgs Boson running in the 3.30 at Cern.
STILL on the LHC, Deborah Sutcliffe of the Artemisia research group has sent us a photo of a Large Hadron Collider cake (see photo, right). She baked it on the understanding that if people and cakes were still in existence in the evening of the day the LHC was switched on, she and her colleagues would eat it. In the event, all was well and they had cake for dinner.
The photo of the cake shows that it was decorated with what look to us like marzipan balls but which Deborah assures us are protons. 鈥淭he thing among the protons,鈥� she says of what we thought was a small kitsch model of a deer, 鈥渋s, of course, a Higgs boson.鈥�
鈥淥n the side of Chris Hope鈥檚 bottle of Hook Norton Haymaker Pale Ale it says: 鈥淲here progress is measured in pints 鈥� Volume 500 ml鈥濃��
You can see the photo of the cake by enlarging the image, above right.
LAST on this topic, Philip Welsby writes to tell us that no one noticed that the universe branched in two when the LHC went into operation on 10 September. Luckily, he says, 鈥渨e were in the universe that continued鈥� rather than in the one that got swallowed up by a black hole.
FINALLY, something completely different: Krys Modrzewski tells us that on a recent trip to India he came across the Touchwood Aviation Academy in Raipur, Chattisgarh. He checked on the internet and so did we 鈥� and, yes, it is real, and they do train pilots there, no doubt always hoping for the best.