Scientific Gossip (38-3a)
Contains 100% gossip from concentrate
Mysterious Old Hay
The biggest mystery surrounding the frozen mummified body discovered in the Austrian Alps a decade ago is strange indeed. The body is generally believed to be about 4000 years old, yet carbon dating of the hay used for insulation in the man's boots shows it to be about 5300 years old. This raises the question which is now exciting so much attention: Why had the man filled his boots with 1300-year old hay?
Moa Excitement
There is great excitement among avian evolutionists over the discovery, based on extracted and sequenced DNA fragments from ancient remains, that while moas are clearly members of the ratite group, they diverged from other ratites early in their evolution. The discovery has inspired the production of a major motion picture to be entitled “DNA.” Gerard Depardieu, Jennifer Lopez, Winona Ryder, and Isabel Adjani are being approached to star in the film.
Rhubarb Over Eggplant
Spanish food scientists are engaged in a furious debate about eggplant. Rosa Esteban and her colleagues at the Autonomous University of Madrid touched off the latest skirmish with a report published ten years ago in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, in which researchers assessed the flavor and chemical composition of three varieties of the pulpy vegetable at 5, 11, 15, 28, 42 and 54 days. The report states that flavor increases until the 42nd day of development, and drops off thereafter. Estaban's competitors vehemently contend that eggplant’s peak flavor occurs at 39 or 40 days, not at 42 days.
Long Nose, Long Life?
A discovery about dogs’ noses and lung cancer has researchers speculating about human schnozzes. Epidemiologists at Colorado State University found that long-nosed dogs whose masters smoke cigarettes are less prone to lung cancer than short-nosed breeds. The research team, led by John Reif, published its results to great acclaim in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Inspired by Reif's work, physicians at several medical centers plan to examine the link between nose length and lung cancer in humans exposed passively to smoke.
© Copyright 2003 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
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