2009 Ig Nobel awards

The Ig Nobel is awarded to researchers, whose research should not be repeated. The 2009 winners, announced on 1 October 2009 were

VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
REFERENCE: "Exploring Stock Managers' Perceptions of the Human-Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Association with Milk Production," Catherine Bertenshaw [Douglas] and Peter Rowlinson, Anthrozoos, vol. 22, no. 1, March 2009, pp. 59-69. DOI: 10.2752/175303708X390473.

PEACE PRIZE: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
REFERENCE: "Are Full or Empty Beer Bottles Sturdier and Does Their Fracture-Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull?" Stephan A. Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael J. Thali and Beat P. Kneubuehl, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3, April 2009, pp. 138-42. DOI:10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013.

ECONOMICS PRIZE: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks — Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland — for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa — and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for creating diamonds from liquid — specifically from tequila.
REFERENCE: "Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila," Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano, 2008, arXiv:0806.1485.

MEDICINE PRIZE: Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California, USA, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than sixty (60) years.
REFERENCE: "Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis of the Fingers?", Donald L. Unger, Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 41, no. 5, 1998, pp. 949-50.

PHYSICS PRIZE: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over.
REFERENCE: "Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins," Katherine K. Whitcome, Liza J. Shapiro & Daniel E. Lieberman, Nature, vol. 450, 1075-1078 (December 13, 2007). DOI:10.1038/nature06342.

LITERATURE PRIZE: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means "Driving License".

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.
REFERENCE: U.S. patent # 7255627, granted August 14, 2007 for a “Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks.”

MATHEMATICS PRIZE: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000).
REFERENCE: Zimbabwe's Casino Economy — Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, Gideon Gono, ZPH Publishers, Harare, 2008, ISBN 978-079-743-679-4.

BIOLOGY PRIZE: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.
REFERENCE: "Microbial Treatment of Kitchen Refuse With Enzyme-Producing Thermophilic Bacteria From Giant Panda Feces," Fumiaki Taguchia, Song Guofua, and Zhang Guanglei, Seibutsu-kogaku Kaishi, vol. 79, no 12, 2001, pp. 463-9. [and abstracted in Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, vol. 92, no. 6, 2001, p. 602.]
REFERENCE: "Microbial Treatment of Food-Production Waste with Thermopile Enzyme-Producing Bacterial Flora from a Giant Panda" [in Japanese], Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, Yasunori Sugai, Hiroyasu Kudo and Akira Koikeda, Journal of the Japan Society of Waste Management Experts, vol. 14, no. 2, 2003, pp. , 76-82.

I wonder which of these were publicly funded.

French Christmas accidents

From Le Journal du Pays Basque (24 December 2008)

Accidents de fêtes

«Dans les hôpitaux, c'est toujours la même chose. Les effectifs sont fixes quel que soit le jour, en tout cas aux urgences et en réanimation» selon un cadre de santé de l'hôpital de Bayonne. Noël est-il un jour particulier aux urgences ? «C'est imprévisible. On constate le même phénomène que les samedis et les dimanches, les gens viennent parce que leur médecin généraliste ne travaille pas. On a aussi davantage de personnes âgées oubliées pour les jours de fête ou de vacances... Et sinon, les accidents typiquement liés aux fêtes comme des chocs à l'oeil avec le bouchon de champagne, ou les blessures aux mains en ouvrant des huîtres».

Only in France - Champagne corks to the eye and cuts to the hand from opening oysters.

See also - The Times (in English)

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One day left before work and I still have plenty to do.

giving thanks for fungi

Seriously, without fungi, the world would be different. The antibiotic penicillin for one. See BBC.

I like how apart from penicillin, people are also dependent onVegemite and Marmite.

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Thank goodness, it's the weekend now.

he's having a baby (yes, really)

From FINDitt News and wire service TransWorldNews, and reported in the Sydney Morning Herald

Oregon Man Thomas Beatie is Pregnant
Atlanta, GA 3/25/2008 07:20 PM GMT (FINDITT)

Thomas Beatie claims he is pregnant with he and his wife’s first child. The Oregon man was born a woman but decided to have a sex change. Beatie says he decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy and not to change his reproductive organs.

Beatie wrote an article about his pregnancy for ‘The Advocate,’ a magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered readers. In the article, he says he stopped taking testosterone injections to get pregnant. He decided to carry a baby as his wife Nancy was unable to get pregnant.

Beatie says he was pregnant with triplets but he lost the babies. He is now pregnant with a baby girl, who is due in July. He describes how doctors refused to treat him. One doctor sent him to the “the clinic’s psychologist to see if we were fit to bring a child into this world and consulted with the ethics board of his hospital.”

“A few months and a couple thousand dollars later, he told us that he would no longer treat us, saying he and his staff felt uncomfortable working with ‘someone like me,’” he wrote. Beatie added that he and his wife’s situation “sparks legal, political and social unknowns.”

and The Advocate article

Labor of Love
Is society ready for this pregnant husband?
By Thomas Beatie
From The Advocate April 8, 2008

To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are -- a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.

Ten years ago, when Nancy and I became a couple, the idea of us having a child was more dream than plan. I always wanted to have children. However, due to severe endometriosis 20 years ago, Nancy had to undergo a hysterectomy and is unable to carry a child. But after the success of our custom screen-printing business and a move from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest two years ago, the timing finally seemed right. I stopped taking my bimonthly testosterone injections. It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle, so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. My body regulated itself after about four months, and I didn’t have to take any exogenous estrogen, progesterone, or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy.

Is this another ethical dilemma? Not really. If it is possible for men (biological males) to gestate a child in pregnancy, some may jump at the opportunity with the support of the child's mother.

Should the hospital staff and the doctor have refused to continue medical treatment? No, they were clouded by their own narrow values. Surely medical staff would have looked upon it as an opportunity to be part of history.

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The weather is becoming colder. At work, training continued today until midday. Then I attended a seminar from a visiting British professor in the afternoon. In my absence from the office, nothing exciting had happened.

Emily came over this evening but missed the walk with Kane (we have to leave earlier now as the days are becoming shorter). I made bangers and mash for dinner, served with blanched broccoli (when the water comes to the boil, I turn it off - there is no need to cook greens any longer).

Botox

There is always a price for extreme vanity. From the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

FDA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 8, 2008

Media Inquiries: Sandy Walsh, 301-827-3418 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Notifies Public of Adverse Reactions Linked to Botox Use
Ongoing safety review of Botox, Botox Cosmetic and Myobloc taking place

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today notified the public that Botox and Botox Cosmetic (Botulinum toxin Type A) and Myobloc (Botulinum toxin Type B) have been linked in some cases to adverse reactions, including respiratory failure and death, following treatment of a variety of conditions using a wide range of doses.

In an early communication based on the FDA's ongoing safety review, the agency said the reactions may be related to overdosing. There is no evidence that these reactions are related to any defect in the products.

The adverse effects were found in FDA-approved and nonapproved usages. The most severe adverse effects were found in children treated for spasticity in their limbs associated with cerebral palsy. Treatment of spasticity is not an FDA-approved use of botulism toxins in children or adults.

The adverse reactions appear to be related to the spread of the toxin to areas distant from the site of injection, and mimic symptoms of botulism, which may include difficulty swallowing, weakness and breathing problems.

The FDA is not advising health care professionals to discontinue prescribing these products.

The agency is currently reviewing safety data from clinical studies submitted by the drugs' manufacturers, as well as post-marketing adverse event reports and medical literature. After completing a review of the data, the FDA will communicate to the public its conclusions, resulting recommendations, and any regulatory actions.

The notification is in keeping with the FDA's commitment to inform the public about its ongoing safety reviews of drugs. The early communication, which includes background information and advice for health care professionals, can be viewed at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/early_comm/botulinium_toxins.htm

The risk is almost as tragic as what happened with Dorian Gray.

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I did some more shrub pruning today in between watching season 4 of Angel.

football... not for the faint hearted

From New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 358:475-483 January 31, 2008 Number 5)

Cardiovascular Events during World Cup Soccer
Ute Wilbert-Lampen, M.D., David Leistner, M.D., Sonja Greven, M.S., Tilmann Pohl, M.D., Sebastian Sper, Christoph Völker, Denise Güthlin, Andrea Plasse, Andreas Knez, M.D., Helmut Küchenhoff, Ph.D., and Gerhard Steinbeck, M.D.

ABSTRACT

Background The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, held in Germany from June 9 to July 9, 2006, provided an opportunity to examine the relation between emotional stress and the incidence of cardiovascular events.

Methods Cardiovascular events occurring in patients in the greater Munich area were prospectively assessed by emergency physicians during the World Cup. We compared those events with events that occurred during the control period: May 1 to June 8 and July 10 to July 31, 2006, and May 1 to July 31 in 2003 and 2005.

Results Acute cardiovascular events were assessed in 4279 patients. On days of matches involving the German team, the incidence of cardiac emergencies was 2.66 times that during the control period (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.33 to 3.04; P<0.001); style="font-style: italic;">Conclusions Viewing a stressful soccer match more than doubles the risk of an acute cardiovascular event. In view of this excess risk, particularly in men with known coronary heart disease, preventive measures are urgently needed.

Source Information

From Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I, Campus Grosshadern (U.W.-L., D.L., T.P., S.S., C.V., A.P., A.K., G.S.), and Statistisches Beratungslabor, Institut für Statistik (S.G., D.G., H.K.), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.

Drs. Wilbert-Lampen and Leistner contributed equally to this article.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Wilbert-Lampen at Med. Klinik und Poliklinik I, Campus Grosshadern, Marchioninistr. 15, D-81377 Munich, Germany, or at ute.wilbert-lampen@med.uni-muenchen.de.

Duh! Anyone who watches nail-biting sports like Australian Rules football, where the lead can change several times in a few minutes know that it is enough to give someone a heart attack.

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Tonight I started watching Hex. Very dark and its take on Nephelim is quite different to that in Fallen.

baldness is not a disease

The media has gone into a frenzy describing a research breakthrough as a 'cure for baldness'.

Since when has baldness been a disease that required a cure?

For the original press release from University of Pennsylvania;

(PHILADELPHIA) – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature.

Growth of regenerated hair follicles over 45 days. Arrow indicates hair shaft. Click on thumbnail to view full-size image

A better understanding of this process could lead to novel treatments for hair loss, other skin and hair disorders, and wounds.

“We showed that wound healing triggered an embryonic state in the skin which made it receptive to receiving instructions from wnt proteins,” says senior author George Cotsarelis, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology. “The wnts are a network of proteins implicated in hair-follicle development.”

Researchers previously believed that adult mammal skin could not regenerate hair follicles. In fact, investigators generally believe that mammals had essentially no true regenerative qualities. (The liver can regenerate large portions, but it is not de novo regeneration; some of the original liver has to remain so that it can regenerate.)

In this study, researchers found that wound healing in a mouse model created an “embryonic window” of opportunity. Dormant embryonic molecular pathways were awakened, sending stem cells to the area of injury. Unexpectedly, the regenerated hair follicles originated from non-hair-follicle stem cells.

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Thank goodness for Thursday. I had a shorter day today at work due to an appointment with the accountant. Last year's tax return now lodged. Can't wait for the small refund. Better than having to pay more tax.

Emily is over tonight. We had duck confit with roast whole baby unpeeled King Edward potatoes with broccolini for dinner.