Funny Science

The Ig Nobel Prizes "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think". It happens every year at Harvard University, and there are prizes for several areas such as economics, physics, chemistry, nutrition, and peace. This year's ceremony happened yesterday, and some of the winning research are really hilarious! I wish I could attend to one of those. My this-year favourites:

NUTRITION PRIZE. Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.

PEACE PRIZE. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

ECONOMICS PRIZE. University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings.

Last year's ceremony had some very unusual ones too:

MEDICINE: Tennessee, USA, for their penetrating medical report "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects."

Can't figure out what the hell they were thinking about when they came up with such ideas, or if the initial idea was good and then it deviated "a bit"... :) well well, the important thing is that some scientists have sense of humor!

Is it time to say "it's time"?

I've been house hunting for the past three weeks, and I can't help thinking what kind of place should I be looking for really. Should I go for a shared flat or a flat for myself only? ... Should I go for the pretty expensive ones, or for the older and cheaper ones?

After 4 years living in student shared houses in England, and with a Ph.D. on my shoulders, I wonder if isn't now the time for comfort. On the other hand, being in a strange city doesn't give me enough certainty of whether I'll live here long enough -- and thus the expensive renting investment might not be worthwhile.

Leaving the specifics aside, when do you know when it's time to say "it's time!" .. time for starting things you've been delaying for a number of reasons; time to give yourself some special treatment; time to take some time off... ?

I don't expect any answers from you reader -- this is just something I felt like sharing with you, since it is one of those questions that people face many times in their lives (if you haven't yet!). Another (yet selfish) reason for this post is that writing helps me think in some way :)

Anyhow, when you're sure that the time is right, saying "it's time!" must be a wonderful feeling!

New Soundtrack

If you haven't seen the film Into The Wild, you should at least take a look at the soundtrack signed by Eddie Vedder. It is simply amazing! And the film itself is as inspiring as the soundtrack -- it explores important topics like life style, human relationships, self-knowledge, and the strength and fragility of human life.

Go for it, it's always good to look at things that challenge your values and principles!

Pets - Interactive!

The last post brought up interesting memories of unusual pet names (like little Mischa above), and I got curious to know of other ones that might be out there! So.. I've done some thinking.

First, nowadays it seems to be common to find dogs named in the categories of alcoholic beverages, like Tequila or Whisky, or traditional American nicknames, like Bill, Billy, or Bobby. However, more creative names that I've heard are inspired by famous "theorists", like Sig (after Sigmund Freud) and Nietzsche (I would be scared of a dog called Nietzsche, wouldn't you?).  But I have to tell you that my favourite (and quite funny) pet names are those that represent the opposite of their characteristics -- for example, my brother once had a turtle which he called "flecha" (the portuguese for Flash)! 

... So, go ahead, search your childhood memories and tell me of any embarrassing, funny or exotic names of any pets you ever had!! :)

The post of change

Today's post reflects my extreme change of working environment: from computer science departments to the one of biological sciences! The highlight of my first day at work was having the chance to touch an owl. I confess that it was a bit scary because the owls looked really frightening with their big black eyes! For you to have an idea, based on a very amateur analysis from my part, I found the picture above that resembles the owl  (I must say that I'm not responsible for any nightmares that you might have after seeing it!)  ;)

I'm probably making a big fuss of it, which can be easily explained by a combination of me being a city girl + a computer scientist. But I wasn't always like this. I actually grew up on small towns on the country side, and I even had a sheep as a pet once -- she was called Misha, and, according to my mother, she was named after the famous mascot of the Moscow Olympic Games!

Harald Bluetooth

I was watching a documentary about the Viking era the other day and the name Harald Bluetooth called my attention. Harald (or Harald Blåtand in Danish) was a tenth-century King of Denmark and Norway.  So I wondered if his name had something to do with our famous wireless protocol... 

It turns out that it does! According to wikipedia and other sources, Bluetooth (the protocol) was named after Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. Apparently, the reason was that King Harald was known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark and Norway and, likewise, Bluetooth was intended to unify different technologies. Voilà!

Btw, the nice viking on top is a souvenir from Norway ;)

The Brain Quiz

Fellow girls, what should you say when someone (probably a man) pops out the assertive that men's brains are larger than women's brains? After all, that's true according to some review by the National Institute of Mental Health...

Well, you should say that this is fortunate, since it makes our (female) brains similar to Albert Einstein's brain -- it was slightly smaller than the average male brain! ;)

(It is all on National Geographic!)