Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Ear, ear
IT鈥橲 enough to make the ears on a Christmas elf wiggle: the muscles surrounding our outer ear tense in response to unexpected sounds and prick up during attention-focused tasks, according to a study in . This suggests that people are 鈥渦nconsciously attempting to orient their ears toward the relevant sounds鈥�.
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The authors hypothesise that humans retain a vestigial ear-pointing reflex, although it is too weak to move the ear. Feedback reckons these impulses could be harnessed by an appropriate prosthetic 鈥� may we suggest the festive, pointed kind?
鈥溾�漈here is a speaker coming to our department who previously worked at Cambridge鈥檚 Quantum Information Group,鈥� writes Martin Dehnel-Wild. 鈥淗is name? Dr Tony Cubitt鈥濃��
Warning lights
JUST in time for the holiday season, the journal Injury on 鈥渟evere injury secondary to falls while installing residential Christmas lights鈥�. The paper outlines the misfortunes of 40 patients over the past decade who were sent to hospital after falling to the ground while decking the halls. Middle-aged men on ladders were particularly at risk, and the authors warn that 鈥渃aution should be employed when installing lights at any height鈥�. Better yet, leave the roof clear for landing reindeer.
Hair of the pig
WITH festivities in full swing, glad tidings arrive in our inbox. London charcuterie Serious Pig announces it has created a hangover-preventing snack, in the form of a ginger-infused pork sausage. 鈥淚s this the holy grail?鈥� the press release wonders pointedly. If it is, Feedback will have to make room on a shelf already sagging with holy grails discovered by marketing agencies.
Serious Pig claims that the snack will combat nausea, fatigue and headaches 鈥� 鈥渟ymptoms associated with hangovers鈥�. This is a bold assertion until you recall that these are also symptoms associated with hunger. Nonetheless, Feedback is more than willing to put any hangover preventative to the test 鈥� in the name of science, of course.
Wine on time
ALSO getting into the Christmas spirit, Susan Frank writes that she recently ordered a case of wine, and was tracking its delivery online. On 15 December, she was told 鈥淵our parcel will be delivered on 15 December 鈥� or before鈥�. 鈥淚 felt obliged to check the wine rack to see if the bottles had miraculously appeared there, but nothing,鈥� reports a dejected Susan.
Interplanetary girl
THE New Horizons probe finally reached Pluto this year. But it wasn鈥檛 the planet鈥檚 only visitor. The surreal video game Noby Noby Boy allows players to stretch a creature known as Boy around his environment. After each game, the accumulated inches from all the players in the world are conveyed to another character, Girl, who stretches herself from Earth out across the solar system.
After almost seven years of continued play by devoted fans, on 23 November. Next she will loop back around the sun and return to Earth 鈥� a feat that even New Horizons couldn鈥檛 match.
Email fail
TRANSCRIPTION errors: 2015 was also the year sequencing service 23AndMe snagged FDA approval for a slimmed-down version of its consumer test for genetic disease, after the original was banned two years earlier for a lack of clinical validation.
However, the announcement conveyed something else entirely when a colleague鈥檚 email program truncated the subject line to read 鈥�23andMe relaunches modified cons鈥�.
Cancer scare
AN OMINOUS strategy for science communication: Geoff Patton received an invitation to submit research to the Jacobs Journal of Cancer Science and Therapy, which tells him 鈥渢he objective of this Journal is to create awareness and apprehension about the developments in the field of Cancer Science Research鈥�.
A bird in the pan
鈥楾IS the season of giving, so Feedback forgoes its patchy prohibition on unusual units to bring you a festive treat.
The British Trust for Ornithology reliably Nic Bullivant that 鈥渁t 450g, the Arctic Skua weighs about the same as an average-sized Christmas pudding鈥�.
Snow business
LET it snow: Andrew Mercer writes to tell us he received an email from the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Switzerland. 鈥淭he authors were named as Martin Schneebeli and Neige Calonne,鈥� says Andrew. 鈥淣ominative determinism or set-up?鈥�
Final farewell
FINALLY, Feedback must bid farewell to 2015, which had the charming property of being palindromic when written in binary: 11111011111.
Unfortunately, you鈥檒l have to wait more than three decades to see the numerals line up again in 2047, although we鈥檙e certain readers can tell us what numerical quirks 2016 offers. All suggestions gratefully received, and a tremendously big thank you for everything else you鈥檝e sent us over the past 12 months. See you in 2016, folks!