Scientific Odds n' Sods

   This just in, folks! The United Kingdom's Royal Society has published research findings that confirm bats with bigger testicles have smaller brains.
   You may wonder why someone spent research time and funds on that one. You wouldn't be alone. You might also wonder if there is going to be a similar study conducted on humans. You wouldn't be alone on that one, either. Alas! No such study is planned. Perhaps because the preponderance of the research population is male, and the possible findings are not something they want to chance unearthing. Perhaps because the need to somehow measure and take into account the subjects' perceptions of the, um, size in question would be simply too daunting a task, the study will be postponed indefinitely.


   While we're on the subject of "why the hell did they bother?", here's another little nugget for you. Two researchers, Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of the International University Bremen and Jozsef Gal of Lorand Eotvos University in Hungary, have determined that penguin projectile defecation requires 8.7 PSI of pressure. Their work earned them the Ig Nobel prize for fluid dynamics.


   The world's first face transplant has taken place in Amiens, France. In an operation that lasted five hours, tissues, muscles, arteries and veins were taken from a brain-dead donor and attached to the lower face of a woman who had lost her nose, lips, and chin after being mauled by her own dog. Doctors are saying that the patient will neither look like the donor, nor like she did before the mauling, but that she will have a "hybrid" face. Of course, there are the usual concerns over whether her body will accept the transplant, or not. She will also have to deal with all the immuno-suppression drugs and their side-effects, but if the procedure can be perfected, think of the incredible, incomprehensible difference it would make, for instance, to those horribly disfigured by burns.
   There are many raising issues of ethics over the procedure, because the transplant has to be taken from a donor whose heart is still beating. Fears over everyone rushing to yank the plugs on life-support systems will have to be dealt with, of course, but I have to say I can't really see any difference between transplanting a face or a heart. Either you object to the entire transplant concept, or you accept it. Why would you make a difference between certain body parts?
    Liver and kidney transplants are old hat now, as are blood transplants, but they all are procedures that raised eyebrows when they were new. Such steps are never undertaken lightly, but once they are developed, neither are they ever again shelved. Now that this new wrinkle in the fabric of medical technology has appeared, all that is left is to iron out the wrinkles. No-one can stop it moving forward, any more than they can stop the work on cloning.