Sex, lies and scientific papers
COULD a spaghetti western be scientists鈥� favourite movie? Reto Schneider believes it is and reckons he can prove it. Writing in his blog at , he points out that: 鈥淣o other movie title pops up more often in the heading of a scientific paper than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.鈥�
Schneider鈥檚 searches on Google Scholar reveal that the name of Sergio Leone鈥檚 film, or variations thereof, occurs in the titles of no less than 2710 papers, an example being 鈥淭he Good, the Bad, and the Cell Type-Specific Roles of Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 in Neurons and Astrocytes鈥� (The Journal of Neuroscience, vol 28, p 1988).
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Another film that scientists clearly enjoy is Steven Soderbergh鈥檚 Sex, Lies and Videotape. Schneider found this features in 526 paper titles, such as 鈥淪ex, Lies, and Herbicides鈥� (Nature Biotechnology, vol 18, p 241).
Third most popular is Woody Allen鈥檚 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). Schneider found this cropping up in 513 papers, not least of which was 鈥淓verything you always wanted to know about Amorphophallus, but were afraid to stick your nose into!鈥� (Aroideana, vol 19, p 7).
Other films among Schneider鈥檚 top 10 are Some Like It Hot (512 paper titles), Dances With Wolves (454) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (424). You can see the full list, with examples of titles based on them, at .
Large numbers of pizza toppings
CAN it be true, we asked on 8 January, that Domino鈥檚 Pizza offers 鈥渕ore than 1.8 billion pizza combinations鈥�? That was the claim presented to Sian Cole in from Domino Australia for a pizza-ordering iPhone app.
鈥淥bviously it can鈥� was the gist of the responses from a score of readers. Start at the top of the menu of toppings. You can have, or not have, the first one, which gives you two 鈥渃ombinations鈥�. And the same for the second one, making four combinations, now. In general, for n choices, there are 2ncombinations and 230 is 1,073,741,824 鈥� less than 1.8 billion 鈥� whereas 231 is 2,147,483,648. So it seems clear that many of our readers were right in saying you need at least 31 toppings on the menu to make 1.8 billion.
We checked at Domino Australia鈥檚 , hoping it would offer the same choice. It encouraged us to choose from 34 toppings. Fine 鈥� but in that case, we wondered, why didn鈥檛 they claim 234, or 17 billion combinations, rather than 1.8 billion?
But it鈥檚 not as easy as that. To check our counting, we started ordering a pizza with everything 鈥� and encountered this message: 鈥淎 maximum of 11 topping serves allowed on each pizza or pizza half.鈥� We resorted to asking an spreadsheet how many ways there are of picking 11 from 34, and it gave us an answer of 286,097,760. But if that applies to just one half of our pizza, and the same number also applies to the other half, the total of possible whole pizzas is that number multiplied by itself, which is 81,851,928,277,017,500 combinations in total 鈥� about 82 million billion.
That鈥檚 plenty, but it leaves out the additional possible combinations provided by people choosing fewer than 11 toppings. What鈥檚 more, all this assumes that you are only allowed to have a single serving of each topping per half pizza. Donald Hobson (aged 12) raises the possibilities of variable quantities of topping. We asked the online ordering service. 鈥淢aximum of 3 serves of any single topping allowed on each pizza or pizza half,鈥� it told us as we ordered treble anchovy.
Feedback鈥檚 knowledge of is exhausted. Are there readers who understand whether or not 鈥溾�� is relevant here, or who can in any way explain how the advert鈥檚 writers got to the figure of 1.8 billion?
Our head hurts 鈥� we鈥檙e going out for a nice curry.
DOES your company have a mission statement? If so, how does it compare with this: 鈥淥ur objective is to empower back-end recognition with bedded down systems for the benefit of our clients and other interested parties.鈥�
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READER Tyler Lord was shocked to see a sign outside a shop in Calgary, Canada, offering 鈥淭oshiba 鈥� all paradigm on sale鈥�. Is this simply an example of an uncertain grasp of the English language, or is it the ultimate sell-out for the philosophy of science?
FINALLY, the on the Pricerunner website told Peter Whittaker that the Alba PCD730 personal CD player ranges in price from 鈥溌�9.99 鈥� 拢9.99鈥� and that its weight is 鈥�320486 lbs鈥�. Peter was interested in the price (which has since gone up), but thought he would have difficulty carrying the player around.