Full of fellow feeling despite being dead
SALMON appear to be able to recognise people鈥檚 emotions, according to our first take on research by Craig M. Bennett and colleagues. They showed a fish a series of photographs of humans in 鈥渟ocial situations with a specified emotional valence鈥� while peeking into its brain with an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner. This revealed, they say, 鈥渁ctive voxel clusters in the salmon鈥檚 brain cavity and spinal column鈥�.
A clue to the researchers鈥� motivation is provided by the title of their paper in the lovely Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results (): 鈥淣eural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic salmon: An argument for proper multiple comparisons correction鈥�. The fish, in short, was dead.
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Brain-scan results should, the authors conclude, be handled with extreme statistical caution.
鈥淭he packaging of Ross Illingworth鈥檚 Vicks Sinex spray includes the unexpected legal advice: 鈥淒o not sue Vicks Sinex for longer than 7 days without medical advice鈥�
THE instructions for the Pin Ball Plinko game Bill Francis has been given say it can be played by 鈥渙ne person or an infinite number of people can take it in turns鈥�. He concludes that he had 鈥渂etter make more sandwiches鈥� for a games night.
WORRIED about radiation? Who wouldn鈥檛 be? It can cause cancer and stuff. And, your mobile phone 鈥� it gives out radiation!
So why not invest in a PhoneShield? It costs, it says on the site, only 拢12.50, plus 拢1.50 for postage and packaging.
How does it work? We have read and reread the company鈥檚 FAQs and 鈥淪cientific proof鈥� article and, though they make clear it鈥檚 a sticky patch containing crystals, they give no further clue. The latter document concludes by introducing the very wonderful concept of 鈥淓mpirical proof by Testimonial鈥�.
In the FAQ we find that 鈥渁mong the first users of the PhoneShield was鈥� Ars猫ne Wenger鈥�, the celebrated manager of Arsenal Football Club in London. So, as with sporting figures endorsing the Power Balance bracelet (Feedback, 20 November 2010), is this proof enough?
Most of the reported 鈥渢ests鈥� used 鈥渂ioenergetic鈥� biofeedback devices. Some are attributed to Coghill Research Laboratories, a sometime promoter of, yes, you have guessed it, magnetic bracelets (). According to the FAQs, however, it was apparently a 鈥渟imple kinesiology test鈥� performed by a Phoneshield representative that convinced Wenger.
In the FAQ we also find the statement that 鈥淎 study published in May 2002 by the Department of Trade and Industry showed that devices to cut radiation from mobile phones can 鈥榮ignificantly reduce鈥� exposure to potentially harmful radiation.鈥� We asked this UK government department鈥檚 successor, the , and it could find no such study. Enquiries continue.
But we also read that 鈥淭he PhoneShield does not attempt to stop or limit the level of radiation鈥�. Is this a sign of some confusion, or is it focused vagueness at work?
WHAT can this mean? Alan Henness sends us an ad that he saw alongside the online , with the slogan 鈥淎ll you can eat in Reading鈥� and a box containing the mysterious claim 鈥淯p to -70%鈥�. The ads originate with an outfit called that offers discount coupons if enough people ask for them.
Perhaps, we puzzled, this means that you will be charged as much as 70 per cent less than the usual price.
But has the 鈥渦p to鈥� get-out clause (Feedback, 14 August 2010) backfired? 鈥淯p to -70鈥� would appear to mean any number between minus infinity and minus 70, which could make us very rich indeed鈥� if it means anything at all.
FINALLY, temperatures below absolute zero are a tricky concept, so when Feedback came across a Digitron thermometer alleged to work down to -750 掳C we had questions to ask (4 December 2010). 鈥淔or one thing,鈥� we mused, 鈥渁t such a temperature the entropy of the thermometer 鈥� loosely, the measure of its disorderedness, and often equated with its information content 鈥� would have been large and negative.鈥�
Science, however, is most fun when it shows what seems obvious to actually be wrong. Thus it was that just after we sent those questions off to their early-bird appointment with our printers, David Shiga filed a news story about theoreticians proposing an improved way of achieving temperatures below absolute zero (4 December 2010, p 15).
Apparently, you can鈥檛 pass absolute zero and go below it, but if you jump directly to a negative temperature, the entropy rises as the energy falls. And heat energy should flow from your beyond-ultra-cold thing to a merely very cold thing.
Which would suggest that the thing at below-absolute-zero temperature should鈥� well, we are not sure, partly because we are confused and partly because it will be a few years before anyone applies the theory to get more than a few atoms that cold.
But congratulations to Digitron on being ready for them.