Improbable Research

Abstruse communication has had no more generous friend in the past century than the newly late Howard J Brannd. Brannd gave new words to a field that was starved of vocabulary. It was he who brought technical jargon from the world of electric appliance repair to the field of mental health therapy….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian. Read it here.

We received this inquiry from investigator Paul A. Kucklein:

The March issue of mini-AIR features this citation:

FUNDULUS FACTS
“Ingression During Early Gastrulation of Fundulus,” J.P. Trinkaus,
Developmental Biology, vol. 177, no. 1, July 10, 1996, pp. 356-70.

The congruence of names between this researcher and the justly famous Ig Nobel Prize-winning researcher, John W. Trinkaus, raises the question of a possible familial relationship.

Is it to be expected that J.P Trinkaus will become as dedicated an observer and prolific an author as his namesake? May we expect longitudinal studies of the ingression and egression of funduli?

We would be interested to hear from anyone who can knowledgably answer investigator Kucklein’s question.

In response, sort of, to Project Insect Kaboom (see mini-AIR 2004-04), investigator Shelly Marino reports:

I recall that Vincent Dethier, in his wonderful book To Know a Fly (the book that turned me into a biologist in the first place) found that if he removed from a fly the dingus (technical jargon, hey?) that told the fly it was full, the fly would eat until it burst.

After a nice healthy jog to 3 libraries (one’s copy was missing, the [Cornell] Entomology Library’s electronic moving shelved didn’t) I found that memory as usual was jogging a little behind. The fly did not actually explode, or if it did he kept that gory detail to himself. He severed the nerve that runs from the brain to all parts of the gut.

“The results of this operation on a hungry fly were spectacular. Such a fly began to eat in the normal fashion, but did it stop? Never. It ate and ate and ate. It grew larger and larger. Its abdomen became so stretched that all the organs were flattened against the sides. It became so big and round and transparent that it could almost be used as a miniature hand lens. It was so round its feet no longer reached the ground and so heavy it could not launch itself into the air. Even though the back pressure from a near bursting crop was terrific, the fly continued in its attempts to eat. It reminded me of a woman who had been admitted to our hospital, a woman whose height was four feet, ten inches and whose weight approached four hundred pounds. Her major complaint was inability to move.”

The reference is: pp.53-55, To Know a Fly, V.D. Dethier, Holden-Day Inc., 1962.

There is a relationship between housecleaning and sex, according to recent research, according to a report in The Mirror. read about it here.

There is much to be seen and learned at the Fruit Fly Fight Club. Read about it here and here.

Thanks to Mark Dionne and Brian Beck for bringing this to our attention.