Those very expensive platinum particles
SHARING Feedback鈥檚 puzzlement over La Prairie face cream and its claim to contain 鈥渕agnetically charged particles of platinum鈥� (23 June), Ash Choudry wrote to the company owning up to 鈥渟truggling a little to understand how the particles can have a magnetic charge鈥�. He further confessed that 鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand what the 鈥榚lectrical balance鈥� of the skin is. Can you point me towards some kind of online medical resource that explains this?鈥�
The response from Jaime Maser at La Prairie opened: 鈥淥ur scientists have worked tirelessly to perfect a powerful and effective anti-aging cream that combined incorporate [sic] new ingredients, delivery systems, technologies and packaging components into one fabulous cream; the pricing reflects all that is incorporated into Cellular Cream Platinum Rare.鈥� That price, by the way, is 拢656 for 50 millilitres.
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Maser went on: 鈥淩egarding any queries on clinical studies or claims, La Prairie鈥檚 policy is to not release specifics. However, in independent published research in the field, including studies by Prof. Y. Miyamoto/University of Tokyo, have demonstrated how Platinum is known to help electrical balance within the skin.鈥�
Yusei Miyamoto has showing that platinum nanoparticles have antioxidant activity in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. It seems a bit of a stretch, then, to rope him into something to do with the 鈥渆lectrical balance鈥� of human skin.
Ash鈥檚 blog about his dialogue with La Prairie is at .
A third incorrect attempt to enter his pass code led to Simon Bowden鈥檚 14-year-old son getting the message: 鈥淚pod is disabled. Try again in 22,272,530 minutes
Magnetic monopoles for treating knees
LA PRAIRIE鈥橲 claims of particles with 鈥渕agnetic charge鈥�, mentioned above, imply the existence of lone magnetic poles. Simon Brown responded to our bemusement over this by expressing surprise 鈥渢hat cosmologists find that lone magnetic poles are not to be found at large in the universe鈥�.
He suggests 鈥渢hey need look no further than 650 Davis Street, San Francisco鈥�. That is the address of the Sharper Image Corporation, purveyor of a 鈥淢agnetic Therapy knee wrap鈥� which contains 鈥渆ight unipole therapeutic magnets of 1000 gauss each鈥�. We observe, however, that these monopoles are 鈥渃urrently unavailable鈥� . Cosmologists should check back to see when and whether their theories need to be rewritten.
READERS periodically send us photos of food shops in Germany and, especially, German-speaking Switzerland, showing a kind of pie in the window labelled 鈥淐holera Pie鈥�. We were quite surprised by this, and had to conclude that the word 鈥渃holera鈥� means something different in German from its meaning in English.
Not so. New 杏吧原创 European correspondent Debora MacKenzie got to hear of our surprise and provided an explanation: 鈥淭he Cholera is a Swiss cheese and veg pie said to date from the 19th-century cholera epidemics, when people did not dare go out to buy fresh food. So, the story goes, they packed potatoes, leeks, cheese, onions, apples, bacon 鈥� whatever 鈥� into a crust and baked it.
鈥淭he similarity of the recipe to a lot of other dishes in the region makes me strongly suspect the pie did not originate during or because of cholera, but this name for a whatever-you鈥檝e-got leftovers dish might well have been a popular joke. A lame one, as staying in was no protection 鈥� people were probably getting cholera from the well water they washed down the pie with.鈥�
Has your date of birth changed?
SECTION 2 of the driving licence application form D1, sent to Jim Moore by the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, asks: 鈥淚f any of your details have changed since your last licence was issued please give the previous details below.鈥�
An example the form gives of the kind of detail that might have changed is: 鈥淐ountry you were born in鈥�. Jim feels that to be consistent, the next print run of the D1 form should also ask respondents to state any changes there have been to their date of birth.
THE email that arrived in his inbox disconcerted Adrian Smith. Was it a spam message? Was it an unsavoury 鈥渂usiness鈥� proposition? Was it an appeal from a lonely heart?
With a subject line like 鈥淪earch for Men鈥�, it could have been any of these 鈥� until Adrian opened it and found that the heading was truncated. In full, it read: 鈥淪earch for Mentor under Indo-US Research Professorship Program鈥�.
A TEENY-WEENY bit of exaggeration, perhaps? Tony Harker notes that UK rail company First Great Western is putting up posters advertising the return of the refurbished Class 180 trains to its services. These proclaim: 鈥淭here is no limit to the number of folding cycles the train can carry.鈥�
鈥淭he Tardis now standing at platform 3鈥︹�� Tony comments.
FINALLY, imagine the surprise of David Purdy on receiving a special offer of the Family Tree Maker program at less than half price. How could he resist the chance to 鈥渇ind out whether any of your descendants were on the Titanic鈥�?