Mystery mech
STRANGER things are unfolding in Rhode Island, where beachgoers stumbled across a mysterious structure buried in the sand just beyond the waterline. The large, eight-legged metal object resisted all efforts at removal by hand, giving residents plenty of time to cook up outlandish theories about its origin.
After several weeks (of mounting dread about an invasion of robotic sea spiders, we presume), Peter Brockmann, president of the East Beach Association, arranged for an excavator to come and dig the structure out. However, this has only raised more questions.
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The prevailing theory was that East Beach was playing host to the remains of an underwater acoustic Doppler profiler, a piece of equipment used to monitor currents and sediment flow.
However, the object removed from the surf 鈥� found to be a metal hoop measuring 3 metres in diameter with eight spokes raised to a point 鈥� no longer fits the bill. A gallery of the mystery structure can be seen at bit.ly/ns-seaspider. of a crashed UFO? The frame of a giant tinfoil hat? Feedback welcomes your theories.
鈥淭ony Compton writes: 鈥淥n BBC鈥檚 Radio 4, a Silicon Valley representative described social media as an ecosystem. I misheard this as egosystem 鈥� but perhaps this word is more appropriate?鈥濃��
Short on science
THE UK parliament has unveiled its new Science and Technology Committee, which has the unenviable role of ensuring government policy is based on good scientific evidence.
Critics were quick to point out that there were no women on the committee, and only two members had a scientific background.
One of those, Graham Stringer, is also a trustee , a think tank that critics say has a history of promoting climate change denialism.
On Twitter, author, geneticist and sometime BBC presenter Adam Rutherford called upon his followers to write to their MPs in protest, but was reprimanded by his employer after Stringer complained that these posts breached .
Stringer ought to know: the Global Warming Policy Foundation was itself censured back in 2013 for breaching the Charity Commission鈥檚 rules on impartiality. It then set up a non-charitable lobbying arm so it could 鈥渕ore effectively鈥� take part in the UK climate debate.
Physics whizz
be at the heart of boys鈥� continued domination of physics classrooms? A lack of female role models? A climate of masculinity that drives female students away? Or boys鈥� toilet antics?
Writing in Tes, three Australian researchers make a case for the last of these possibilities, insisting that they are not taking the, er, mick. Anna Wilson, Kate Wilson and David Low propose that years of guiding streams of urine give boys a better grip on projectile motion, an area of physics that often forms the introduction to the curriculum. The researchers say that only a third of female pupils answer questions on projectile motion correctly, compared with two-thirds of male pupils.
Worryingly, this pattern is evident even among young women entering the 鈥渉yper-masculine environment鈥� of the Australian Defence Force Academy, a career that is nothing if not about launching projectiles.
Feedback remains sceptical that guiding a stream of urine confers any special skills beyond being able to write one鈥檚 name in the snow. And if our experience of public toilets is anything to go by, a lifetime of practice doesn鈥檛 guarantee any competence in projectile physics, theoretical or practical.
Home run
EVERYONE has their role to play in history, but a walk-on part by Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees centre fielder and Baseball Hall of Fame incumbent, has only just come to light.
Geneticist Mary-Claire King recounts in the HuffPost how the baseball star volunteered to babysit her daughter when they found themselves waiting in line together at San Francisco Airport in 1981. This allowed King to escort her mother to her Chicago flight and return in time to make her own flight to Washington DC for a meeting with the National Institutes of Health.
Were it not for DiMaggio, King would probably have missed her meeting 鈥� which secured King her first major grant and led to the discovery of the BRCA1 genes associated with breast and .
That鈥檚 nuts
A DIFFERENT type of fruitloopery? Doctors writing in BMJ Case Reports relay the case of a man nearly killed by his penchant for apricot stones. After he went under anaesthetic for routine surgery, the 67-year-old was found to have abnormally low blood oxygen levels.
The man later revealed he had been taking two spoonfuls of homemade apricot kernel extract daily for the past five years, on top of herbal supplements containing fruit kernel extract.
Tests confirmed that his body contained high levels of cyanide. The doctors report that the man was ingesting around 4 grams of the deadly poison daily 鈥� enough to raise its concentration in his blood to around 25 times safe levels.
Despite physicians explaining the consequences of his regime, the man said he would continue taking his .