Do Penguins Topple?

It’s a good time (probably, it’s ALWAYS a good time) for a look back at the question of whether penguins topple backwards when watching aircraft fly over. Richard Stone reportedly feels that his work was misinterpreted. According to the British Antarctic Survey, in an official announcement: “The research is not funny at all! … Dr […]

A cat, a cow, a Paper Bag

What can be learnt with a cat, a cow and a paper bag? This is not a moot question. To raise dairy cows can be intellectually challenging, in addition to being hard physical work. Every dairy farmer knows this, although it may be news to a small number of milk-guzzling, cheese-chomping city-dwellers. Fordyce Ely and […]

The Romance of Ear Candles

There is talk (and more) of the romance of ear candles. Some doctors fail to see the romance. This report seems to be an example: “Ear candles: a triumph of ignorance over science,” Edzard Ernst, Journal of Laryngology and Otology, vol. 118, no. 1, January 2004, pp. 1-2. The author, who is at the Universities […]

Cooking With Lava

In recent years several cooking techniques have been refined. Among them are cooking with lava, and the many innovations of Heston Blumenthal, of whom The Observer wrote: For example his famed bacon and egg ice cream came about through his interest in ‘flavour encapsulation’: the principle of which means a single coffee bean crushed in […]