Category Archives: science

medical, personal, science

Niffiness

Some while ago Hails, over at Coffee Helps, was mulling over smells. Nice smells. Nasty smells. And it set me thinking about the same. So here are some of my favourite and most detested smells; ten of each.

Nasty Niffs

  1. Sewers. As you’ll gather from this list I don’t have a “strong” stomach; I’d never have been able to work in the emergency services or medicine.
  2. Vomit
  3. Pernod; especially Pernod and blackcurrant. Disgusting!
  4. Stagnant water
  5. Unwashed people
  6. Rubbish bins
  7. Rotting meat and maggots
  8. Tobacco smoke
  9. Wet, humid buses; which I think is related to …
  10. New cars; that petrol, plastic and leather smell just makes me feel (travel) sick and “heavey”. Actually petrol on it’s own isn’t too wonderful either.

Nice Niffs

  1. Fresh coffee
  2. Grapefruit; especially grapefruit aromatherapy oil
  3. Christmas spices; that wonderful mix of cinnamon, clove, orange, pine etc.
  4. Church incense
  5. Wood smoke
  6. Fresh baking bread
  7. Lilies
  8. The sea
  9. Lavender
  10. Jasmine

It isn’t really surprising that most people have a fairly common set of abhorred smells as this is a biological design to make us avoid things which are potentially dangerous to health (eg. rotten meat) by making us view them as disgusting. But I’m always surprised at the things which people less commonly dislike — such as Hails’s dislike of lilies, or mine of Pernod. Similarly there are smells which it seems many people love; and here I’m thinking of baking bread (often used by supermarkets as an attractant) and coffee. Again why are some smells so commonly liked; I can see no obvious foundation in biology? What is it that makes us like or dislike something with no obvious basis in biology?

Smell is a surprisingly powerful sense, despite human olfaction being incredibly poor compared with most animals. So, yes, there are smells which bring back specific, pleasurable or not, memories and these will clearly influence our choices. But why the rest of them? As far as I know I have no experiential reason to like jasmine, lilies or wood smoke; nor to dislike Pernod. So why?

And why do some of use have “stronger” stomachs than others? Surely a “strong” stomach should be an evolutionary disadvantage?

What are your most loved and hated smells? And do you know why?

science, thoughts

Collapsing Sign Syndrome

Could it be that some signs are quantumly determined, collapsing to a state of true or false when you observe them? Based on his observations, Neill Jones thinks that it could.

He gives the example of a sign outside his house saying “No dog fouling”. Every time he has looked at it, he says, it has been true. This is also the case with another “No dog fouling” sign on a building a couple of streets away.

On the other hand, on Salisbury Plain in the south of England, where there are regular military manoeuvres, there is a sign by the road saying “Tank crossing”. This, says Neill, has collapsed to false every time he has looked at it.

There are, however, further complexities to this phenomenon. Some signs avoid a quantum collapse altogether, Neill notes. Take the “Gap ahead closed” sign he saw recently while driving up a dual carriageway (divided highway). If there was a gap ahead, he reasons, then it wasn’t closed. If it was closed, then there wasn’t a gap ahead. So the sign failed to be either true or false and was merely self-cancelling.

“Maybe I should get out more,” Neill suggests. “But then I’ll only find more signs. So maybe I should stay in more.”

[New Scientist; 22 August 2009]

beliefs, current affairs, medical, science, sexuality, thoughts

Harrah! More Please!

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There’s a wonderful article over on the BBC News site. Well the article isn’t actually wonderful, it’s pretty hack, formulaic BBC journalism about a TV show. It is the idea, intelligence, thoughtfulness and guts behind the programme which is wonderful.

The programme was on BBC3 last evening and follows a couple of teenage girls and their mums as they visit various people in UK and Netherlands so the girls can discover for themselves about whether they’re ready to lose their virginity. Clearly this had to involve a lot of very open discussion between the girls and the people they met (including a group of teenage boys who were asked some pointed questions by the girls) and between the girls and their mums. From reading the item (sadly I missed the programme) clearly the mums were struggling to cope – but cope they did and I get the impression everyone came out of it much stronger and better balanced.

But why does it need a TV programme to get people to do this? OK so not everyone will take on for themselves a 2000 mile journey. But everyone has a surprising number of local resources to draw on: parents, teachers, doctors, health workers, not to mention their friends, peers and relations. Why can’t people talk about these things? Openly? I just don’t get it. Everyone (almost) has sex in some form or another at some time. Sex is an important part of life so why not admit it and be open about it? Reading and writing are important in life and we get taught those at a very tender age, and hone our skills over many years – some more than others, but everyone improves and learns. So why not sexuality?

Hopefully this programme will be repeated, and repeated, and repeated. And used by schools. And parents everywhere. Maybe, just maybe, it will start the revolution in (most people’s) thinking about sexuality and their bodies that our society so desperately needs.

Incidentally one interesting fact which is often overlooked: Holland has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate and the lowest rates of sexually transmitted infections in western Europe. Britain has almost the highest. Despite a very open attitude to sex, teenagers in Holland start having sex on average one year later than in the UK. Why? Because the Dutch are pragmatic and willing to discussing sexuality etc. openly; they don’t treat it as dirty and hide it in the coal-shed like we do. I lived through the sexual revolution in order to do away with coal-sheds!

Parents and teenagers (even sub-teens) everywhere please note!

books, medical, memes, personal, photography, science, thoughts

Rites of Passage Meme


Rites of Passage Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s Flickr meme is about rites of passage. As some might be near the bone for some people we were allowed to choose from 20 questions; of course I’ve had to do them all (well I did write them!). So here is my somewhat off-the-wall interpretation.

1. How old were you when you were born? (No it isn’t a stupid question as some people seem to be born aged 900 and get younger as the years go by) 9224 frightens in Vogon. 1 Vogon frighten = eπi√3 Earth days
2. Who was your first teacher? Me
3. Whose was the first wedding you attended? My handkerchief (see #10)
4. Whose was the first christening you attended? (Not your own!) Mine – and yes it does count as I was 22
5. Whose was the first funeral you attended? A student drinking buddy who fell over dead in the shower one morning
6. Who was your first boyfriend / girlfriend? Sandra, when I was 8; at 11 I was stalking her.
7. Who is/was your role model? Lewis Carroll; we have 3 shared interests: photography, logic and young girls (although I like them to be of legal age!)
8. When and how were you first aware of your puberty? “Razor, meet Face. Face, meet Razor.”
9. Who or what is your guiding spirit, or inner shaman? Zen Mischief
10. Who took your virginity? Mr Dexter Hand
11. At what age did you lose your virginity? I don’t lose things; I put them away somewhere safe!
12. What was your first permanent job? (I don’t count holiday/student jobs!) Being a frightened depressed child
13. How old were you when you married (or entered an equivalent relationship)? Old enough to know better; young enough to still do it
14. Who was (or would you like to be) your Best Man or Chief Bridesmaid? Why don’t men have bridesmaids?
15. What was/would you like to be your honeymoon destination? Garden of Edam
16. When did or do you hope to retire? About 11PM tonight
17. Have you had a “road to Damascus” event? If so, what was it? Nah, that Damascus place it’s foreign innit!
18. How old will you be when you die? (Comment as for age at birth!) Senile
19. Heaven or Hell? Hell – full of much more interesting people
20. Ashes or reincarnation? Both: ashes for the body; reincarnation for the mind/soul

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

1. Baby Vogon, 2. 185/365: I’ve learned not to look too closely, she said, 3. 150. Forget Me Not by Barbara A. Malek, 4. Font, Happisburgh Church, Norfolk, 5. A full moon on the Cam, 6. I can keep a secret if you can keep me guessing, 7. SWAPBOT – QUOTE POSTCARD 21 – #1, 8. Day 226/365 My first shaving brush, 9. Zen Kitty, 10. in the palm of my hand, 11. What? No Way!!, 12. Frightened Child Turning into Angry Teen mask, 13. Keepin’ Bee Z 🙂, 14. Procession, 15. Edam – a lot of cheese 3, 16. I’m so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!, 17. Damascus, 18. Tiny life of the White Sea, 19. Stoking the fires of Hell, 20. digital reincarnation

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

natural history, personal, pleasures, science

Death on the Ranch

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Well not really on the ranch, more in the fish pond. This very hot, humid and airless weather has taken a toll on my pond fish. Over the last 3 days I’ve lost 8 fish, most of them koi carp. None of then were of any great monetary value, but of course as with any “pet” they are of sentimental value. And we are not talking small fish here; we’re talking koi the size of a damn good salmon!


These were my fish last year; the three big ones in the centre of the picture are amongst those I’ve lost in the last few days. The golden orange one was almost 25 years old and one of my very first pond fish.

Coldwater fish do not like this weather. It is well known that water gets starved of oxygen in warm, sticky, stormy weather. This last few days has been especially bad; I don’t remember anything so hot and humid for many years. and of course it hits the largest fish hardest. They have a larger body mass to support, and their body mass to gill are ratio must be higher than in smaller fish. So the big fish get hit first. But then I do also partly blame myself as my pond maintenance has probably not been up to scratch recently.

It’s a timely reminder not just of the fragility of life but of the old adage about fishkeeping: We are not fishkeepers, we are water keepers.

Fortunately it has been noticeably cooler today, and the forecast is for it to get cooler through the weekend and for rain from Sunday; both of which will help.

current affairs, medical, science, words

Pandemic

Following on from my post of yesterday, it seems that WHO really are bowing to political pressure and redefining pandemic to take account of virulence as well as geographical spread. As an academic, Vincent Racaniello, author of the Virology Blog, is typically scathing:

WHO redefining pandemic is absurd. Pandemic is an epidemiological definition that has nothing to do with virulence […] Although pandemic is most frequently associated with influenza virus, other infectious agents may cause worldwide epidemics […] WHO should leave textbook writing to others. To paraphrase Andre Lwoff, a pandemic is a pandemic. The word implies nothing about virulence – and has little to do with politics.

As a fully paid-up pedant (and erstwhile academic) I entirely agree.

current affairs, medical, quotes, science

Pandemic or Not?

Revere over at Effect Measure, has been writing a lot recently about the so-calle “Swine Flu” outbreak; not suprising as the editors are public health practitioners. A post the other day caught my eye; it explored when is a pandemic not a pandemic. Basically Revere explores the position with the current Influenza A/H1N1 outbreak and touches on some of the posturing going on by governments, WHO etc. to avoid declaring this a pandemic.

Yes, all very well; this is what we would surely expect of politicians. What struck me though was this wonderful paragraph:

The argument boils down to this. We shouldn’t call a pandemic a pandemic, because people might misunderstand that this means it’s a pandemic. And then they would do things like panic, like UK officials are doing now when the prospect is broached we are having a pandemic. And since even the considerable wiggle room of the current definition of a pandemic is insufficient to avoid calling this one a pandemic, please provide us with some more wiggle room by adding severity to the mix, so we can then argue about whether the pandemic is severe enough to be a pandemic.

The original post isn’t technical and it isn’t long but it does highlight the way in which governments etc. use as much (and more) wriggle room as is available in their own interests. Politics was ever thus!