Biology book only costs $23 million
BIOLOGIST Peter Lawrence was thrilled to discover how highly valued his classic book The Making of a Fly seemed to be. We found this out when reader Colin MacLeod alerted us to by biologist Michael Eisen which forensically deconstructs how Lawrence鈥檚 thrill came to pass.
Fascinated, we contacted Eisen for an update 鈥� to be told that Lawrence regaled guests at his 70th birthday party with the news that his book was being offered on for $23,698,655.93.
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The way Eisen tells it, one of his graduate students was the first to spot interesting pricing for The Making of a Fly, with two copies on offer at prices from $1,730,045.91 (plus $3.99 shipping). Eisen checked back the next day and found that both had gone up substantially.
Continuing to track the prices, he deduced that each day seller A was pricing their copy at 0.9983 times seller B鈥檚 price 鈥� and seller B immediately raised theirs to 1.27059 times the result. Or, rather, both sellers were running software that repriced the book daily 鈥� until the price reached $23 million and, Eisen deduces, someone other than he took a look and decided that this was a bit much.
Seller A鈥檚 strategy was clear enough 鈥� to fractionally undercut other sellers. Eisen suspects that seller B didn鈥檛 in fact have a copy, but that they were hoping to capture a buyer, get the book from seller A, send it to the buyer and pocket the difference.
That was a while ago, but runaway pricing continues, presumably with the same sort of software involved. One wet Sunday afternoon recently, Feedback . The first entry listed six second-hand copies of The Law of Mortgages by Edward F. Cousins on sale from $58,146,323.61 to $83,999,266.57 鈥� expensive, even for a law book. But bioscience continued to reign supreme, with one copy of listed at $59,780,802,831,736.00, nearly four times the . You would need to consult a very special bank manager before clicking 鈥渂uy鈥�.
When we checked back a couple of weeks later, however, the epilepsy volume was available for $0.02 plus shipping. What would happen if the national debt showed the same volatility?
The label on Bill Ross鈥檚 jelly dessert purchased from the company cafeteria said, 鈥淏est Before Feb 30, 2013鈥�. Bill wonders when this will be and how he will get there
BELGICA, an asteroid discovered by the Belgian Eug猫ne Joseph Delporte in 1925, was named after Belgium. The country famously consists of two regions, Flemish-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia, which don鈥檛 always see eye to eye. In fact, some Flemish politicians want to split the country into two independent states.
How apt, then, that a team of Italian and American astronomers that Belgica actually consists of not one rock but two similar-sized ones circling each other.
So does this mean that Belgica is about to split into two independent states? Or does the astronomical finding simply confirm what non-separatist politicians have always said: that the two entities are not independent, but form a confederation within the Belgica system?
Either way, the two rocks won鈥檛 be named 鈥淔landers鈥� and 鈥淲allonia鈥�, as the name Wallonia was awarded to an asteroid discovered in 1981.
HEALTH centres in the UK are adopting the use of touchscreens for people to self check-in when they arrive for an appointment. When Steve James approaches the screen in his local centre and touches it to start, the machine asks him if he is male or female. Then it asks him the day and month of his birth. Finally, it asks: 鈥淲hat year were you born?鈥�. The two options presented to him for an answer to this are: 鈥�1975鈥� (the year of his birth) or 鈥淣one鈥�.
He says he is always tempted to select 鈥淣one鈥�, just to see what happens.
LOOPY quote of the week is provided by Dave Harris, who found it on at . The article there on expanding DNA strands 鈥渒inda looks OK until you hit para 10,鈥� says Dave. 鈥淭hen, Whoa!鈥�
鈥淭here is evidence for a whole new type of medicine,鈥� says the article at this point, 鈥渋n which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies WITHOUT cutting out and replacing single genes.鈥�
Feeling a bit under the weather? Your DNA obviously needs a bit of a talking to鈥�
FINALLY, Bernice Brewster informs us that telecoms giant BT has just launched its new website and 鈥減aper-free鈥� billing. The updated system seems to suggest the company is surprisingly relaxed about payment. On downloading her bill, Bernice was told: 鈥淧lease make sure your payment reaches us by: 31 DEC 9999.鈥�