Hair oil
JAPANESE researchers who showed that one of the chemicals in fried potatoes could help grow hair follicles have asked people to stop eating French fries as a cure for baldness.
The team that allowed them to culture large numbers of hair follicle germs 鈥� a precursor of follicles 鈥� in the lab. These were transplanted into mice, where they produced new hair.
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The process uses a chemical called dimethylpolysiloxane, which is also added to oil in deep fat fryers to reduce splatter. The news sent hordes of smooth-pated men scurrying to fast-food joints to devour French fries.
Exasperated lead researcher Junji Fukuda told Reuters: 鈥淣o matter how many fried potatoes you eat, you鈥檒l never grow more hair. That鈥檚 a total misunderstanding that鈥檚 gone viral.鈥�
Oven chips
IS THIS the best thing since sliced bread? Lasers can now tattoo graphene circuits directly on to any material with a suitable carbon content, such as paper, cardboard, clothing 鈥� and toast. The tattoos can act as batteries, sensors and RFID chips, allowing companies to better manage inventory or detect microbes responsible for food spoilage.
鈥溾�滻s technology getting ahead of itself?鈥� asks Dave Rogerson. 鈥淚 tried to get a black coffee today from an automated machine in a well-known chain of pubs and it refused 鈥� because it was out of milk鈥濃��
If it seems as if the latest smart gadget has a shelf life comparable to the contents of your bread bin, perhaps in future the two will become one. Pity the parents who have banned mobile phones at the dinner table, only to find junior tweeting from a bread roll.
Marriage manual
LOVE in a time of cholera? A 300-year-old sex manual is going under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers near Derby, UK. First published in 1684, Aristotle鈥檚 Masterpiece, or The Secrets of Generation contains advice on a whole range of relationship and reproductive matters.
Inside, there are warnings about the esoteric effects of apparently innocuous things: too much salty and spicy food can promote early puberty in girls, for example. And children of 鈥渕onstrous shape or habit鈥�, we are told, are the result of sudden frights, extraordinary passion or their mother鈥檚 strange imagination.
The guidebook also has much to say about marriage: old men who take on young wives, it warns, are likely to find themselves 鈥渨edded to an early grave鈥� by their exertions. There鈥檚 less insight for those courting in the age of Tinder, but if your dinner date orders the sparrow and parsnips, he just might be worried about maintaining his performance later.
Open arm
HUMANS will react pretty well to news of alien life. Michael Varnum at Arizona State University examined news stories such as the suspected fossil Martian microbes found in a meteorite in 1996, and the not-so alien megastructure orbiting Tabby鈥檚 star, and found coverage was generally positive in tone.
A subsequent poll, where 500 people wrote down their reactions to the hypothetical discovery of alien microbes, also prompted mostly positive views.
Of course, stumbling upon extraterrestrial microbes in Martian rocks is a far cry from an alien armada turning up on our planetary doorstep. Indeed, evidence of late suggests that we seem much less welcoming to aliens arriving from less far afield.
Will first contact be followed by calls to build a space wall 鈥� and make the aliens pay for it?
Elk and safety
WATCH out for low-flying deer. An elk has collided with a helicopter carrying two wildlife researchers studying mortality rates among migrant elk. The pair had been pursuing the animals in the mountains east of Salt Lake City to fit them with tracking collars, according to the Associated Press.
The pilot had descended to around 3 metres from the ground to let a researcher jump out and capture the elk, when the animal leapt into the tail rotor, sending the helicopter crashing to the ground. After clambering from the wreckage with minor injuries, the researchers presumably updated their elk mortality records with: 鈥�1 x death by helicopter鈥�.
Pension plan
HAVING read about the Australian electromagnetic radiation cleanser that looks suspiciously like a lump of plastic (3 February), Rob Holmes writes to say: 鈥淚t occurred to me that Feedback鈥檚 fruitloopery drawer must be bulging.鈥�
He wonders if we have considered tapping this gold mine of profitable ideas to ensure a comfortable retirement for ourselves. Rob, we must admit, the temptation is ever-present (surely someone can sell us a crystal pendant for that).
Thankfully though, we already have a way of converting fruitloopery into a steady income, without running foul of trading standards. And with the sheer volume supplied by readers, we won鈥檛 be retiring any time soon.
Stranger things
YOU may recall Adrian Wilkins writing to Feedback to report on the perilous bathing experience offered by adverts for 鈥渟uper heated鈥� swimming pools (27 February 2016).
He finds himself flirting with danger again while walking alongside the River Avon at Hanham near Bristol, where a sign attached high up a tree warns ominously against straying from the path: 鈥淜eep out. Unquantifiable hazards.鈥�
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