A jack of all trades
READERS may be familiar with the Erd枚s number, a description of how far removed a researcher is from famously prolific mathematician Paul Erd枚s. His immediate co-authors earn a score of 1, anyone who co-authored a paper with one of those researchers is scored 2, and so forth.
A similar system measures connectedness in Hollywood via the degrees of Kevin Bacon. And in the music industry, Black Sabbath are at the centre of the collaborative Venn diagram. So it was only a matter of time before somebody combined all three, giving rise to the Erd枚s-Bacon-Sabbath (EBS) project.
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The authors of say: 鈥淎nyone with a well-defined EBS number must have many talents and a fascinating backstory, but they turn out to be more numerous than you might think.鈥�
Never mind well-known polymaths such as Brians Cox and May. Who knew, for example, that Colin Firth (E6, B1, S4) co-authored a paper on the neuroscience of political leanings () or that Condoleezza Rice (E6, B3, S4) abandoned a career as a pianist to pursue politics? And how delighted we are to discover that Terry Pratchett has the very respectable score of E4, B2, S3, thanks to his Discworld series spanning literature, film and music.
鈥淎ndrew Tucker is informed by an ITV News report on nail bars that 鈥渢he work is mostly manual鈥�. 鈥淚 suppose it would be,鈥� he says鈥�
pH proof water
PREVIOUSLY Feedback mulled the issue of ocean acidification or, as UKIP鈥檚 Roger Helmer would have it, ocean de-alkalinisation (4 February). Dominic Burrow spies an opportunity to pour oil on these troubled waters with technology from Echo Elemonics, a company selling a device that adds hydrogen molecules to .
The firm鈥檚 homepage takes pains to point out that the device doesn鈥檛 produce the alkaline water you may have seen peddled with dubious health claims, but is a machine for adding a 鈥渟ymphony of balanced trace elements鈥�, which will increase your fitness, support weight loss and balance 鈥渆nergy fields and environmental harmonics鈥� for more 鈥渉armonically tuned experiences鈥�.
Incredibly, the machine can add hydrogen molecules 鈥渨ithout substantially altering the pH of the water in the process鈥�. Feedback suspects that if this property could be applied to the world鈥檚 oceans, we might save the coral reefs with a large-scale anti-de-alkalinisation programme.
Swoops and scoops
MEANWHILE, Ian Nelson finds a surprising revelation nestled in a story from the Daily Mail about a roofer in The Hague, Netherlands, who is plagued by a dive-bombing gull. Commenting on the motives for the attack, the paper concludes that 鈥渢he bird was acting defensively because it was giving birth to chicks鈥�.
OH NO
previously challenged readers to find celebrities whose names can be constructed using single-letter symbols from the periodic table (7 January).
Andy Ward writes to complain that 鈥渋f the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry hadn鈥檛 changed the symbol for argon from A to Ar in the early 1960s, the task would be easier鈥�. But he offers leeway in that fusion scientists and cosmologists 鈥渙ften use the symbols D and T for the heavier isotopes of hydrogen鈥�.
Finally, he notes that it is possible to make several phrases ending with the symbols for oxygen, fluorine and fluorine. Be OFF with you Andy, that鈥檚 no way to behave in Feedback.
Joust a minute
THE insatiably curious Hillary Shaw writes to say she was searching for web hits for the date 12 October 1399 鈥渢o see if there were any historic events that happened鈥�. Surprisingly, the top result was a link to the BBC Sport schedules for Sunday 12 October 1399. Her initial excitement was soon deflated, however, when she realised that the given page only declares, 鈥淭here is no schedule for today. Please choose another day from the calendar.鈥�
鈥淧erhaps the time-travelling BBC sports schedulers have omitted to include the medieval jousting tournament for that day, or maybe it was just another religious holiday and all the knights had a day off,鈥� says Hillary. 鈥淧erhaps BBC sports correspondents can clarify?鈥�
Feedback thinks she鈥檇 be better off asking Tony Robinson of Time Team.
Higher dimensions
DEMAND for much-vaunted 3D television has proved rather flat, and manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic and LG are quietly dropping the feature from their latest models.
Nobody, however, told residents in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, where Anthony Wheeler spotted a cinema offering an even-more-extravagant 5D show. 鈥淚 would certainly have paid the price of admission just to experience these added dimensions, but sadly our train was about to depart,鈥� he says.
Which makes Feedback wonder if three simply wasn鈥檛 the magic number for TV buyers. Could 66.7 per cent improved 5D sets be what鈥檚 needed to convince consumers? And how many pairs of glasses would we need to watch shows on them?