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What was New Scientist talking about in Marches past?
OLD SCIENTIST
What was New Scientist talking about in Marches past?
Drop foot just got
simpler
The FS3000 is a revolutionary new treatment option for drop foot. Unlike many other AFO’s it - Attaches directly to a wide range of footwear
SCIENTISTS are often derided for having a poor sense of humour. In our 20 March 1958 issue, we hit back with evidence of the “fun” side of science: an extract from the memoirs of physicist Edward da Costa Andrade. He recounted the top-class banter that ensued when a colleague ordered hare soup in Andrade’s college refectory and the dish arrived with a beetle in it. “Waiter, waiter,” he called, “I ordered beetle soup and there’s a hair in it!” A fellow diner took him at his word and advised him to “bring it up before the next refectory committee”, provoking the inevitable quip. Laugh? It’s not reported if they did. Our wordplay was no less hypodermic-sharp a full 30 years later, when in our 10 March 1988 issue we reported a spat between the news agency Reuters and the New England Journal of Medicine. Then, as now, that journal allowed journalists to see its papers before publication, on the understanding that the hacks didn’t let the cat out of the bag early and scoop its big stories. A paper revealing that a daily aspirin substantially reduced the frequency of heart attacks in men was too tempting for Reuters, though, and the agency broke the journal’s embargo. Mutual recrimination and retaliation ensued, inspiring our cartoonist David Austin to draw the cartoon revived above. By 2007, our Feedback column had been up and running for a number of years and our quotient of humour – or attempts at it – had risen correspondingly. In our 10 March issue, Feedback was picking on product claims, a popular target. Apparently Seabrooke Potato Crisps was proud that its snack had been “cooked in sunflower oil for over 25 years”. Was the same oil used throughout, we wondered. We’ll let you be the judge of whether scientific humour has improved over the five decades since Edward Andrade told his amusing anecdote. Mick O’Hare n
- Acts as an exoskeleton providing the user with unparalleled levels of function without discomfort or rubbing - Allows ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion, making it easier to walk and run on slopes, stairs and uneven surfaces Contact us for further details:
www.turbomed.co.uk
tel +44 1246 268456 email [email protected]
To delve more into the New Scientist archives, go to newscientist.com/article-type/old-scientist/ 4 March 2017 | NewScientist | 55
What was New Scientist talking about in Marches past?
Drop foot just got
simpler
The FS3000 is a revolutionary new treatment option for drop foot. Unlike many other AFO’s it - Attaches directly to a wide range of footwear
SCIENTISTS are often derided for having a poor sense of humour. In our 20 March 1958 issue, we hit back with evidence of the “fun” side of science: an extract from the memoirs of physicist Edward da Costa Andrade. He recounted the top-class banter that ensued when a colleague ordered hare soup in Andrade’s college refectory and the dish arrived with a beetle in it. “Waiter, waiter,” he called, “I ordered beetle soup and there’s a hair in it!” A fellow diner took him at his word and advised him to “bring it up before the next refectory committee”, provoking the inevitable quip. Laugh? It’s not reported if they did. Our wordplay was no less hypodermic-sharp a full 30 years later, when in our 10 March 1988 issue we reported a spat between the news agency Reuters and the New England Journal of Medicine. Then, as now, that journal allowed journalists to see its papers before publication, on the understanding that the hacks didn’t let the cat out of the bag early and scoop its big stories. A paper revealing that a daily aspirin substantially reduced the frequency of heart attacks in men was too tempting for Reuters, though, and the agency broke the journal’s embargo. Mutual recrimination and retaliation ensued, inspiring our cartoonist David Austin to draw the cartoon revived above. By 2007, our Feedback column had been up and running for a number of years and our quotient of humour – or attempts at it – had risen correspondingly. In our 10 March issue, Feedback was picking on product claims, a popular target. Apparently Seabrooke Potato Crisps was proud that its snack had been “cooked in sunflower oil for over 25 years”. Was the same oil used throughout, we wondered. We’ll let you be the judge of whether scientific humour has improved over the five decades since Edward Andrade told his amusing anecdote. Mick O’Hare n
- Acts as an exoskeleton providing the user with unparalleled levels of function without discomfort or rubbing - Allows ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion, making it easier to walk and run on slopes, stairs and uneven surfaces Contact us for further details:
www.turbomed.co.uk
tel +44 1246 268456 email [email protected]
To delve more into the New Scientist archives, go to newscientist.com/article-type/old-scientist/ 4 March 2017 | NewScientist | 55