Hot hot heat
A MAN was left with 鈥渢hunderclap headaches鈥� after eating the world鈥檚 hottest chilli pepper. He was taking part in a chilli-eating contest when he swallowed a Carolina Reaper, which boasts around 1.5 million Scoville units, not far off the 2 million of commercial-grade pepper spray.
The BMJ reports that the 34-year-old man experienced dry heaves, neck pain and presumably a dose of regret, before developing agonising headaches that persisted for several days. Characterised by sudden, excruciating shocks of pain lasting several seconds, thunderclap headaches are usually associated with adverse reactions to drugs 鈥� both the medicinal and recreational kind 鈥� but this is the first time medics have seen the condition elicited by chilli peppers.
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After he made his way to hospital, a CT scan showed that several arteries in his brain had temporarily constricted, most probably because of the blisteringly hot peppers. Both the constriction and his symptoms resolved themselves in a few days.
Other would-be chilli champions have been even less fortunate. In 2016, a 47-year-old man ate a burger topped with relish made from another record-breaking chilli, the ghost pepper. He vomited so hard he tore a 2.5-centimetre hole in his oesophagus. We鈥檒l stick with ketchup.
鈥淲e鈥檇 like to set the record straight. The street lights in Gateshead will not give you cancer.鈥� An exasperated Gateshead Council takes to Facebook to dispel rumours of killer lamp posts鈥�
Critter crisis
ALARMED residents in Youngstown, Ohio, are reporting a spate of 鈥渮ombie-like鈥� raccoons roaming their neighbourhood. Usually shy and nocturnal, the animals have been spotted wandering about by day, standing up on two legs and baring their teeth. To make matters worse, the affected animals appear to have lost any fear of humans.
Before you retire to your bunker in preparation for the impending apocalypse, the most likely explanation, according to the state鈥檚 Department of Natural Resources, is that the raccoons have distemper, a viral disease that usually affects dogs and related species. It鈥檚 not transmissible to humans, so Feedback suggests you head to the Winchester for a nice cold pint and wait for all of this to blow over.
High crier
QUENTIN TARANTINO, Tim Burton and David Cronenberg all agree: there is something about in-flight movies that has them in tears. The phenomenon is so widespread it has even been given a scientific-sounding name: altitude-adjusted lachrymosity syndrome, or AALS. The reasons for the effect are unknown, but those affected find themselves bawling at films that would fail to coax a tear at sea level.
Not so fast, say Paul Wicks and Lee Lancashire, two academics based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They surveyed about 1000 people who had watched an in-flight movie in the past year, quizzing them on their crying habits on land and at 30,000 feet.
While one in four movies moved people to tears, the researchers found no significant increase in crying at altitude. More reliable predictors of waterworks were genres like dramas and family films, highly rated movies and being female. Tiredness, jet lag and alcohol didn鈥檛 increase the chance of crying.
It looks like those who find themselves blubbing over romantic comedies during their jet-setting will have to find some other explanation 鈥� too much chilli in their in-flight meal, perhaps?
Go with the floe
BIRDS of a feather flow together, according to physicists. Armed with satellite photos of king penguins鈥� breeding grounds, researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany investigated colony organisation using radial distribution function 鈥� a type of analysis more usually employed to describe the atomic structure of molecules.
They found that the thousands of huddled penguins formed a liquid-like flock. Limited space and the risk of hungry seals kept the birds close together, while a sense of personal space and the threat posed by sharp beaks kept them apart. The fluidity of the system allowed the penguins to move out of the way of passing elephant seals while ultimately staying together as a group.
Readers will no doubt recall that penguins aren鈥檛 the only animals to behave like liquids. In 2014, physicist Marc-Antoine Fardin wrote a paper arguing that cats can be considered liquid thanks to their ability to adopt the shape of their container, a study that earned him an Ig Nobel prize.
Biblical flood
LOOKING for a sign perhaps, Henry Gasko finds one fixed to the Melbourne docks on the Maribyrnong river. A security notice warns that 鈥渉igh pressure water canons may start without notice鈥�.
鈥淲e did venture close enough to take a picture, but were not subject to an attack by any wet liturgies,鈥� says Henry. 鈥淣ot even a soggy sermon.鈥�
Naked ambition
FOLLOWING previous stories about childhood theories, Jon Noad writes: 鈥淲e lived in Holland while my children were growing up. A swimming pool near us had a 鈥榥ude swimming鈥� session every Saturday morning. My 4-year-old daughter, Elsa, was extremely concerned that she wouldn鈥檛 be able to swim without her swimming costume.鈥�
Fuzzy buzzer
AND Andrew Lane recalls his mother delighting 鈥渋n pointing out that the first time I saw a bumblebee I said, 鈥楲ooky mummy, it鈥檚 a fly with its dressing gown on'鈥�. Despite this early promise, Andrew says he didn鈥檛 go on to a follow a career in zoology.
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