White-coated cats
All my cats know how to analyse breath to detect illness
(17 March, p 12).
They don’t have to learn it: they were born with the knowledge. I trust my cats’
diagnoses over my doctor’s any time. Treatment for flu involves staying with the
patient for longer than usual periods, preferably keeping the human warm in bed.
Wrapping the top of the patient’s head with a warm furry body is most beneficial
with frequent sniffing of both breath and skin odour to check on recovery.
Seat of the argument
I was interested in your item about which way people turn when they go into a theatre
(17 February, p 25).
So I made careful observations at a town meeting to discuss a proposed open-air stage on our waterfront.
Almost everyone who spoke had chosen to sit on the left side of the room, as
they entered it. All those with strong opinions were on that side. This suggests
to me that they were presenting their logical sides to the meeting, for
argument. Those who opposed the proposal sat near the front, and those who
favoured it sat near the back. I suggest this is related to aggressiveness.
I was strongly opposed to the open-air stage, and felt a powerful urge to sit
in the front row at the left. I’m not sure why.
Smelly child
When I was about 8 years old, I correctly diagnosed my mum’s friend as having
an ear infection. She asked me how I knew. I said I could smell it. What took
the scientists so long to catch up?
Letter
I noticed with some grim amusement that great pains were taken to disinfect
the feet of the Queen Mother when she attended a recent race meeting. Yet no
notice whatever is taken of the claws of birds that fly from farm to farm,
possibly spreading foot and mouth disease with impunity.
The very name of the disease implies that it is pasture-based. Yet I’m not
aware of any effort whatever to disinfect the pastures themselves. I would
expect that birds will also get it on their claws. They may not be infected by
it, but could act as carriers. I suspect that this is what gave rise to the
notion that foot and mouth is an airborne disease.
What spreads viruses?
One of the most distressing aspects of the epidemic of foot and mouth disease
now ravaging Britain’s farms is pictures of stacks of animals being burnt, with
thick clouds of dark smoke blowing in the wind.
As a surgeon I routinely use electrocautery in my work. It has been known for
some time that live viruses can spread through the plume given off by vaporising
infected tissues at high temperature by electrocautery or with surgical
lasers.
Do similar conditions exist when infected carcasses are burned? Clouds of
highly infectious smoke could in theory be carried many miles, infecting animals
even in the areas where animal movement is banned.
Autism and MMR鈥攖he debate continues
Ken Aitken
(10 March, p 56)
refers to research on autism in northern
Finland and its apparent finding that autism has increased fourfold among
Finnish children. What Aitken didn’t say is that the study’s authors conclude
that the most likely reason for any increase in the figures is that doctors and
parents have got better at spotting autism symptoms in children, as well as
improvements in the methods of diagnosis.
In the same issue, C. Wells suggests that a mercury-based preservative called
thimerosal used in MMR vaccines might be linked to autism. But thimerosal is
used in many vaccines. If thimerosal was the culprit, then many other vaccines
ought to be linked with autism, not just MMR. The safety of MMR has been
established not just in thimerosal-free Finnish trials, but also in a large
Australian trial.
I can assure readers that measles is not a mild childhood disease. In a 1994
outbreak in Western Australia, 5 of the 53 cases required hospitalisation. Ten
years ago, in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, 32 per cent of all child deaths at the
local hospital were due to measles. MMR is much safer than not giving MMR.
In a fizz over tax
I recently received a leaflet on the new rates of vehicle tax in Britain,
which are now based on carbon dioxide emissions. This to me is a pollution tax.
So other polluters/emitters ought to pay too. Take the fizzy drinks industry.
How much CO2 does the fizzy drinks industry put into the atmosphere
each year without a sniff of pollution tax? Why should the cola consumer sip
away with impunity while the poor road user has to pay tax to pass the same
cafe? If the British government spots this loophole we’ll soon see flat lemonade
being sold at a premium,
I say, listen to this
Sarah Ransdell’s research into essay writing while under the influence of
background music
(17 March, p 17)
throws up a very unimpressive statistic:
people produce one fewer word a minute if they are listening to music. Is music
the important factor here? I suspect they may produce one fewer word a minute if
the Sun is playing hide and seek with the clouds outside or if someone is
cooking bacon within their range of smell.
A fairer observation might be: “People write one fewer word every minute if
their senses are unduly involved in something other than their essay writing.”
It seems to me an utterly unremarkable finding.
More worrying though, is Tim Spector’s finding
(17 March, p 16) that genetic
make-up largely determines a person’s ability to judge pitch. I am quite certain
that his figures are based on sound calculation. What baffles me is his
conclusion that it’s virtually impossible to change a person’s perception of
music. I accept that genes may be responsible for congenital musical
appreciation, but who says that children cannot be educated to appreciate music?
The genetic inheritance, I expect, is closer to musical apathy than musical
inability.
But education changes that. For example, children whose genes predispose them
to enjoy fizzy drinks may take 20 years to appreciate the difference between a
Cabernet Sauvignon and a Shiraz. But explain the differences and their palettes
will adjust. Why can’t it be the same with music? A deaf ear may not be given
the gift of hearing, but a philistine ear may certainly be enlightened. It
happens all the time.
Big catch up
Apparently big babies are smarter than smaller ones
(17 February, p 49). I
feel there must be other factors involved. After all, Isaac Newton is said to
have been born prematurely, and I presume, underweight. I weighed in at a tender
1 pound and 14 ounces (0.85 kilograms), so I feel particularly encouraged by my
academic progress. Perhaps this means that underweight babies who do well are
actually twice as bright. It may mean that Newton should really be classified as
a “double” genius on account of the ground that he had to catch up.
12 sides to every story
Syd Curtis proposes that a piece of paper, when considered as a cuboid, has
eight sides
(3 March, p 56).
Surely it actually has 12: inside left, inside
right, inside top, inside bottom, inside front, inside back, outside left,
outside right, outside top, outside bottom, outside front and outside back?
Theorily confused
The current promotion of “renewable” energy causes me some concern. Energy
cannot be renewed, only converted from one form to another. Is this not the
first law of thermodynamics?
Wind power takes energy from the wind and converts it to energy in the form
of electricity. Will this affect the weather in some way?
You're wrong part 1
The ancient city of Machu Picchu was neither a “stronghold” nor was it the
“last refuge of the Inca empire after it was overrun by Spanish conquistadores
in the 16th century”
(10 March, p 20).
The inclusion of these long-discredited
notions in your article may distract from the credibility of your more immediate
message that it is in danger of being destroyed by landslides.
Sober Samson
I hesitate to spoil a good discussion about the cause of Samson’s behaviour
(17 February, p 19).
But the reason Samson was told not to drink鈥攐r cut
his hair鈥攚as because he was a Nazirite: one specially dedicated to
God.
Nazirites never drank wine. This reflected the old nomadic, desert-dwelling
days of some of the early Israelites. A few families carried on this somewhat
puritanical approach to life, for example the Rechabites mentioned in
Jeremiah, long after most Israelites became settled, urbanised wine
drinkers. For Samson to be the complete Nazirite his mother was not to drink
during the pregnancy.
As for his behaviour, it is a matter of opinion whether it was deviant and in
need of a sociological explanation, or that of a national hero, keeping hope
alive in the dark days of Philistine oppression.
Turing chatlines?
It seems to me that a computer program with effective basic language skills
could lead to an attractive commercial opportunity
(3 March, p 21).
Here’s what I suggest. Two dozen copies of the program could be made
available via a dedicated Internet chat site. Initially access would be free,
but restricted to credit card holders. The programs would be given a basic
X-rated vocabulary, so I’m sure a significant number of men would be willing to
continue further training for free.
If the programs were organised as genetic algorithms, with a culling of the
least popular, cross-breeding of the survivors and occasional random code
changes, communication skills would improve rapidly (for the computers and the
trainers). As the programs improve, start charging for access to the site.
Following such a process I confidently predict that an all-male panel of
judges would be fooled in a Turing test within a year or so. Of course, it would
take at least another 10 years of improvements before it would fool a woman.
You're wrong part 2
I have to take the editors of New 杏吧原创 to task over a glaring
error that slipped through recently (10 March, p 4). Jeff Hecht writes that
“academic groups pressurised NASA”. I am sure the academics only pressured
NASA.
Making yourself ill
So we might soon have a breath sensor that can predict if you’re about to
suffer a bout of flu
(17 March, p 24).
I have long thought that there is a large
psychological component to becoming ill from minor afflictions such as colds.
When people think that they are about to become ill, they generally do. An
attitude of defiance can help considerably in recovering from, or preventing the
onset of even quite serious conditions. So a machine that tells you that, could
actually make those people fall ill. Under these circumstances, should the
results be disclosed to patients?