Feedback New scientist a popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit content that you think might entertain readers in the Feedback section by sending an email. [email protected]
Too crowded to mention
Feedback is one of many holidaymakers who have broken French swimsuit rules. For those who don't know, men visiting a public swimming pool in France (and parts of Italy) are required by law to wear skimpy swim trunks. Loose shorts are prohibited. This is why you will never find feedback in a French pool.
Feedback was going to call these tight-fitting garments “budgie smugglers,” an Australian slang that has made its way to the UK. Then we found out that there was actually an Australian swimwear brand called Budgy Smuggler, whose best-selling swimwear featured swimsuits decorated with brown and pink hibiscus, and decided not to go there.
Anyway, let's wander in the general direction. Associate Editor Thomas Leslie came across an article on medRxiv describing “cross-sectional study among male scientists” about the relative merits of swimming trunks and shorts. We can't imagine what search terms Thomas used to find this article.
Let's dive deeper. The authors explain that France insists on briefs for hygiene reasons, as “looser clothing can introduce external contaminants into the pool and the environment.” However, “these allegations have never been confirmed.” So the team recruited 21 male academics, luring them with the promise of free coaching. They were asked to wear shorts or briefs under their clothes for 2 hours, then remove them and immerse them in water. The researchers tested the water for bacteria and found that the water from the shorts had more bacteria than the water from the briefs.
As a result, five participants tried swimming in “local bodies of water.” However, it turned out to be “quite eventful”. One volunteer had his clothes stolen, “leaving the participant slightly awkwardly dressed in public.” The second experiment was disrupted when a participant left his underpants to dry on a rock while swimming in shorts, after which “the dog (Familiar wolf dog) urinated briefly [them]”
Reviewers must admit that they were slightly confused by the experiment. If shorts carry a higher bacterial load, but you have to wring them out in water to release the germs, is that really a problem? The authors themselves say that they do not understand what is happening. “It is possible that the release of pollutants from the gastrointestinal tract is lower in [briefs] due to their elasticity, they exert external pressure on the gluteal muscles, thereby reducing contact between the rectum and tissues.” It seems possible.
On the other hand, it is possible that hydrodynamics play a larger role in the release of bacteria from shorts. “Surprisingly, the effect of pool drag on fecal bacteria shedding is completely unknown, and to our knowledge, no study has ever examined fluid dynamics inside different types of swimsuits,” the authors write. Someone please: write this grant proposal.
Bold bald physique
It's finally happened: Lego has reached a deal with the owners. Star Trekand their first release is the large Enterprise-D model from Next generation.
Full kudos to the designers for starting with something so complex: Enterprise-D has a sleek design, with curves throughout and subtle straight lines, so building it out of (mostly) rectangular blocks is a big step.
Unfortunately, when solving this design problem, Lego employees missed one small detail. Hidden inside the model is a gold plate with the inscription “Boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Funny rodents
Let's say you're worried that your lab mice are bored and you decide to play some music to keep them entertained. What should you wear?
This is precisely the question asked by Johann Maass and his colleagues from Frontiers of Behavioral Neurosciencein an article entitled “Taylor Swift vs. Mozart: Musical Preferences of C57BL/6J Mice”.
They note that when the researchers play music to mice, they usually choose the same piece: Sonata for two pianos in D major, K.448 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is the piece that Supposedly increases your child's intelligence if they listen to it – you know, the famous “Mozart effect”, which was loudly debunked many years ago. (The main evidence against this comes from a 2010 study with a great title: “The Mozart effect – the Schmozart effect: a meta-analysis”.)
It's a little strange that biologists are so keen to play this Mozart piece for mice, which does not improve the brain. As the authors note, “the hearing range of mice is 2 to 100 kHz,” and most of the sonata is below 1 kHz, so mice probably can't even hear most of it.
As a result, the researchers created the Mouse Disco test arena: four soundproof rooms connected by tunnels. Each one played different music. One had Mozart. Another had electronic dance music “represented by the first 60 minutes The Best of Euphoric Dance: Breakdown 2001 – CD1The third had a selection of what the team calls “classic rock” and what Feedback would call “nuff rock,” including songs by Nazareth, FireHouse and (horror of horrors) Whitesnake. The fourth had a Taylor Swift playlist.
The mice showed no preference, except that they spent almost no time in Mozart's room. Take this, Amadeus.
Have a story for feedback?
You can submit stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please provide your home address. Reviews for this and previous weeks may be saw on our website.
