Investigator Tim Churches writes: You might be interested in the devilishly cute (but happy) heart logo of the newly launched open access journal, BioPsychoSocial Medicine. It appears that this journal is an offshoot of the official organ of the Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine, which according to its President is “an interdisciplinary academic society consisting […]
Month: April 2007
Medieval help desk (in theory)
?ystein and Meg recreate, in a short video, a (theoretical) incident handled by a medieval help desk. (Thanks to investigator John Hoyland for bringing this to our attention.)
Vomiting in wild bonnet macaques
“Researchers have given little consideration to vomiting in non-human primates.” Quite so. A new report called Vomiting in Wild Bonnet Macaques points that out, and tries to remedy the deficiency. Elizabeth Johnson, Eric Hill and Matthew Cooper published their study in the International Journal of Primatology. Johnson is at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. Hill […]
Infanticide in Japanese ducks
Digging into the life of the spot-billed duck in Japan (see my previous blog entry), I found a true ‘first’ of peculiar behaviour in this species, as published by the researchers Tetsuo Shimada, Kazuyuki Kuwabara, Saori Yamakoshi, Tomomi Shichi in Journal of Ethology 20(2), September 2002. Apparently, ducklings not only have to fear ferocious carp. […]
ECONOMICS LESSON: Income & expenses
Some students believe that economics lessons are necessarily dull. Here is a fairly exciting lesson about income and expenses. The lesson was prepared by Newt Gingrich. Mr. Gingrich is a former college professor. He often stresses the importance of not going broke (his technical phrase for this is “fiscal responsibility“). The lesson is contained, implicitly, […]
An ovary syndrome in men
Do men have ovaries? No. But a new study describes an ovary syndrome in men. The study is: “Polycystic ovary syndrome in men: Stein-Leventhal syndrome revisited,” Razelle Kurzrock and Philip R Cohen, Medical Hypotheses, vol. 68, no. 3, 2007, pp. 480-3.
Administrators uncover design flaw, perhaps
Engineers and administrators sometimes express contempt for administrators. However, three administrators have uncovered a dangerous engineering flaw in a new automobile — and they risked their lives to do it. The case is described in an April 7, 2007 report (with a photo) in The Detroit News: Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with […]
Progress: Weaponry for the blind
Blind gunmen are a big step closer to realizing their dream. Soon they may be able, legally, to “fly solo” with guns and lasers, at least in Texas. An April 5, 2007 report in the San Antonio Express says: Blind hunter Stanley McGowen has relied on two things to help him “see” the turkeys and […]
Duckling feeding fish? Nope.
Remarkable duck behaviour always has my full attention. When a video, taken in Japan, titled ‘baby duck feed the carp’ was posted on YouTube, I studied it carefully. That’s because there is no previous report of any duck engaged in feeding fish (in contrast to reports of? ducks feeding on fish — although that is […]
Old Joan and the sniff test
Joan of Arc’s relics exposed as forgery …Odour analysis is a new technique for palaeopathology, but Charlier says that he hit on the idea after being struck by the variety of odours of other historical corpses. Delacourte and Duriez sniffed the relics and nine other samples of bone and hair from Charlier’s lab without being […]