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Gas giant

ASTRONOMERS have confirmed that Uranus smells like farts. The seventh planet鈥檚 odour 鈥� or, more precisely, the chemical composition of its atmosphere 鈥� has long been the subject of debate among space scientists.

Using the 8-metre Gemini North telescope on Hawaii鈥檚 Mauna Kea peak, Patrick Irwin at the University of Oxford and his colleagues analysed infrared light reflected by the planet. They found that the upper atmosphere鈥檚 swirling clouds were rich in hydrogen sulphide, one of the chemicals that gives rotten eggs 鈥� and farts 鈥� their characteristic pong.

Although it makes up only a small fraction of the gas you expel from your behind, hydrogen sulphide is a major contributor to its smell. Feedback鈥檚 esteemed colleagues reported previously that eating potatoes, bananas, artichokes and asparagus might help to reduce hydrogen sulphide production in the gut, leading to less pungent emissions (22 October 2016).

鈥淏rian Darvell catches a whiff of nominative determinism in The Telegraph: 鈥淎rthur Bouquet, an American horticulturist, claimed that just 50 per cent of today鈥檚 roses have a noticeable scent鈥濃��

Visitors to Uranus will have more to worry about than the stink, though: 鈥淪uffocation and exposure in the -200掳C atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium and methane would take its toll long before the smell,鈥� says Irwin.

Whoosh of Wall St

TRADING at a European stock market was briefly interrupted after computers at a data centre were paralysed by a loud noise.

The DigiPlex centre in V盲sby, Sweden, hosts the Nasdaq Nordic trading exchange, serving eight nations in northern Europe. On the morning of 18 April, a fire alarm accidentally triggered its fire suppression system.

As with many data centres, DigiPlex relies on a high-pressure blast of inert gas to drive out oxygen from at-risk rooms, suffocating the blaze and sparing the computers any water damage.

Unfortunately, the squeal of the venting gas was so loud that it destroyed almost a third of the Nasdaq Nordic servers, knocking the exchange offline.

To make matters worse, reports the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat, there weren鈥檛 enough servers in the country to replace them, so new ones had to be flown in from abroad. Talk about a foreign exchange.

He鈥檚 just not that into you

men underestimate their partner鈥檚 sexual advances, while straight women overestimate them 鈥� but it doesn鈥檛 seem to be a problem.

Kiersten Dobson at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and her colleagues surveyed straight couples, all of whom had been together at least three months, in two groups. They were questioned on how often they or their partner initiated sex, what those cues entailed, and levels of satisfaction within the relationship.

In the first group, men accurately judged the frequency of their partner鈥檚 advances, while women overestimated them. In the second group, women were more accurate, but men underestimated their partner鈥檚 advances.

The researchers note that sexual satisfaction was higher for those who perceived frequent advances, even when actual advances were low. It seems in matters of the bedroom, it鈥檚 the thought that counts.

Stiff competition

FAKE views! That photo of an anteater sniffing for prey at a termite mound full of firefly larvae was apparently just too good to be true.

Marcio Cabral鈥檚 prizewinning entry to the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition was belatedly disqualified after judges were shown evidence that the anteater was a taxidermy specimen. The competition rules state that 鈥渆ntries must not deceive the viewer or attempt to misrepresent the reality of nature鈥�.

Anonymous sources pointed out that a stuffed anteater very similar to the one in the photo is on display at an entrance to Emas National Park, Brazil, where the photo was taken.

Five scientists who investigated independently concluded that the resemblance was unlikely to be a coincidence. Cabral denies having faked the scene.

Fading away

AS A child in the 1960s, Moira Redmond says she was an avid reader of newspapers. But she noticed something eerie: whenever there was a report of someone being murdered or dying in an accident, it would often be accompanied by a photo of the victim. But the shot would be fuzzy and unclear compared with pictures of politicians or sports stars.

鈥淚t didn鈥檛 occur to me that the papers were having to make do with whatever rough snapshot the surviving relatives could come up with,鈥� writes Moira.

鈥淪o I came to the conclusion that after a person dies, existing photos of them start degenerating too, looking less and less clear. This fuzziness, obviously, was actually caused by the subject鈥檚 death.鈥�

Moira thinks this might be a good plot for a horror story. Feedback will be keeping a photo of ourselves to hand in future, just to make sure we鈥檙e still alive.

Missed the bright side

A NEW, environmentally friendly power plant has been unveiled in Chernobyl, to mark the anniversary of the world鈥檚 worst nuclear accident. The BBC notes that 鈥渁 new solar plant has been built there, in the shadow of the reactor which exploded in 1986鈥�.

Peter Jones writes: 鈥淚 would have thought it would have been better on the south side.鈥�

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