Do hairpieces reduce vitamin D?
THE feature in New 杏吧原创 on glorious middle age (10 March, p 48) prompted reader Roger Brook to speculate that baldness in middle-aged men might be an evolved characteristic to increase vitamin D production, since the vitamin forms in skin exposed to sunlight.
The idea might seem far-fetched, but a little searching throws up a of a paper in the Medical Journal of Australia entitled 鈥淒oes degree of baldness influence vitamin D status?鈥� ().
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The paper concludes: 鈥淭he degree of baldness does not appear to influence serum 24-OHD [vitamin D] levels鈥� 鈥� but not before the authors have admitted their data may have been skewed: 鈥淲e cannot exclude the possibility of bias attributable to undisclosed use of hairpieces or 鈥榗omb over鈥� techniques that might reduce scalp exposure to sunlight.鈥�
鈥淭ravelling through 鈥渨onderful鈥� west Canada, Jenny Narraway was disconcerted to read, on the bottom of a 鈥渇lowers of Canada鈥� tea mug, the words: 鈥淒iscover Canada, made in Taiwan鈥�
Nanoparticles: a pain in the foot
READER Ian Portman was searching online for some background information on iridium nanoparticles, having been sent some for his electron microscopy work. He came across a page headed 鈥淣atural Antibiotics Pure Colloidal Silver鈥�.
Among all the guff there about monatomic particles and such, he noticed this: 鈥淣anoparticles are huge and get stuck in cells鈥� membranes and cannot be excreted out. Because they are metallic particles, they sink to the bottom of the feet and can cause foot pain.鈥�
Ian observes: 鈥淚鈥檓 handling many of these compounds and do indeed have foot pain. I鈥檇 previously thought it was caused by a broken bone some years ago, I鈥檓 wondering if I should take to sleeping on my head to allow the particles to even out a bit.鈥�
Lottery promotes gamblers鈥� fallacy
THE includes on its opening page this statement: 鈥淭o improve your chances of winning the Irish lottery we have compiled a STATS section based on previous draws.鈥�
Terry Devlin wants to know if they have discovered some previously unknown aspect of the laws of probability.
Measuring in five minute walks
RESPONDING to Feedback鈥檚 interest in unusual units, Wendy Sheils tells us about a book she bought as a present for her brother, who she says is 鈥渁 connoisseur of irrelevant trivia鈥�. The book is (Puzzlewright, 2010) and one of the many inconsequential assertions in it is that a marathon (42.195 kilometres) is equal to 85 FMWs.
An FMW, it turns out, is a 5-minute walk, so 85 of these would be about 7 hours. We think this is a splendid unit of measurement, but Wendy points out that there are problems with it 鈥� notably, whose 5-minute walk? A marathon runner going for a stroll, she suggests, would cover a different distance in 5 minutes than Wendy herself would when she鈥檚 being 鈥渓ed by two desperate puppies鈥�.
She is also at a loss to know how the book arrived at its opinion that the Straits of Dover are 68 FMWs wide. Inflatable shoes, perhaps?
AN ADVERTISEMENT in a shop in London told Stewart Morris that he could 鈥淓njoy hydrogen rich water right from your own tap鈥� and, what鈥檚 more, that the filtered water in question has 鈥渟maller water clusters to better cell absorption鈥�.
Stewart has no idea what they are talking about, and neither does his wife, who has a chemistry degree, and neither do we.
HURRY is not required here. Daniel Smith ordered an Xbox Live prepaid code from an online retailer, to give him access to interactive games on the eponymous device. He received an email informing him that 鈥淵ou have 10000 days to accept this code before it will be offered to another customer.鈥�
He worked out this gave him until 26 September 2038 before the code is offered to someone else 鈥� who, he suspects, 鈥渨ill have no idea what an Xbox is, or why it needs a code鈥�.
A GRATE for wood fires called the WoodMiser supposedly saves on fuel 鈥渂y burning 33 per cent less firewood鈥�.
Graham Ranson was intrigued and went to to find out more, only to end up feeling thoroughly irritated. The cause was 鈥渘ot so much what it says, it鈥檚 what it doesn鈥檛 say鈥�, Graham explains. In particular, the section headed 鈥淭he science鈥� says that 鈥淭he science behind the way the WoodMiser is made is highly complex鈥� 鈥� but it tells you nothing about what the science actually is.鈥滻s that code for 鈥榶ou鈥檙e too stupid to understand鈥�?鈥� Graham asks. 鈥淥r is it 鈥榳e鈥檝e no idea how it works but other people seem to think it does, so there鈥�.鈥�
FINALLY, how is this for an explanation that mystifies? Norm Cleland tells us that on Friday 23 March, speaking on Channel 10 TV in Australia, Jane Lindsay of the Australian Homeopathic Association explained that 鈥淗omeopathy is to do with the quantum energy field鈥�.