“In his book, Seven Experiments That Could Change The World, Rupert Sheldrake suggested that the public carry out experiments to test whether pets can psychically detect when their owners are returning home. The first of these tests was undertaken by an Austrian television company and involved an owner in the north-west of England, Pam Smart (PS) and her dog (Jaytee). The test appeared remarkably successful and seemed to show Jaytee responding when PS set off to return home from a remote location. Rupert Sheldrake and PS asked the authors if they would like to carry out their own investigation into Jaytee’s abilities. (more…)
Archive for the ‘super powers’ Category
NCBI ROFL: Can animals detect when their owners are returning home? An experimental test of the ‘psychic pet’ phenomenon.
NCBI ROFL: What is this I don’t even (facial hair edition).
Unwanted intrusive thoughts and the growth of facial hair: a cognitive analysis.
“The functional connection between unwanted intrusive hair growth and negative automatic cognitions is described and illustrated by case-material. Treatment by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is recommended as generally successful except when certain facts are denied.”
Bonus quotes from the full text:
“There is a similarity between unwanted intrusive thoughts and unwanted intrusive facial hair. Recent research from the All-Bulgaria Agricultural College (Organic) in the former Wandsworth, proves conclusively that the two phenomena are not merely similar, but fundamentally interconnected. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: Presented without comment.
Effect of solar eclipse on microbes.
“OBJECTIVE: A solar eclipse was observed in India on 15(th) January, 2010. It was a total eclipse in some parts of the country, while it was a partial eclipse in other parts. Microorganisms play an important role in various phenomena on the earth. This study was undertaken to know the influence of solar eclipse on nature indirectly, by analyzing certain genotypic and phenotypic variations in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Since yeast have similar gene expression as that of humans, investigations were pursued on Candida albicans. Hence the study of the effect of solar eclipse on cultures of Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella species, Escherichia coli,and C. albicans was performed in the laboratory. The effect of the total or partial eclipse on the microorganism isolated from clinical isolates was investigated during the time period from 11.15 am to 3.15 pm. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: Self-fertilization in human: Having a male embryo without a father.
“Chimeras are the result of fusion of two zygotes to form a single embryo, producing an individual with genetically different kinds of tissue. If the fused zygotes are of different sex, the individual develops both ovarian and testicular tissues. The majority of these people are best reared as females and many pregnancies with living offspring have been reported in persons reared as females, and several cases has fathered a child. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: A foot needs a nipple like a fish needs a bicycle.
[Uncensored photo below]
Case report: Ectopic nipple on the sole of the foot, an unexplained anomaly.
“Supernumerary nipples are common congenital anomalies, most often occurring along the embryonic milk lines. We present a patient with an ectopic nipple on the foot. We are unable to explain the aetiology of this anomaly; however, several theories have been proposed.” (more…)
NCBI ROFL: Sword swallowing and its side effects.
Fig 1: One of the authors (DM)
swallowing seven swords.
It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy!
“OBJECTIVE: To evaluate information on the practice and associated ill effects of sword swallowing. DESIGN: Letters sent to sword swallowers requesting information on technique and complications. SETTING: Membership lists of the Sword Swallowers’ Association International. PARTICIPANTS: 110 sword swallowers from 16 countries. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects.
It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy!
“Objective: To assess the evidence for a genetic basis to magic. Setting: Harry Potter novels of J K Rowling. Participants: Muggles, witches, wizards, and squibs. Interventions: Limited. Main outcome measures: Family and twin studies, magical ability, and specific magical skills. Results: Magic shows strong evidence of heritability, with familial aggregation and concordance in twins. Evidence suggests magical ability to be a quantitative trait. Specific magical skills, notably being able to speak to snakes, predict the future, and change hair colour, all seem heritable. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: Self-surgery: not for the faint of heart.
Today’s ROFL isn’t exactly funny, but it is bizarre, awe-inspiring, and a little frightening. Here are three cases of DIY surgery. And we aren’t talking about removing an ingrown nail; these are major surgeries. Although the excerpts of each article are longer than our usual fare, they are definitely worth reading!
Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic: case report
“The ship Ob, with the sixth Soviet Antarctic expedition on board, sailed from Leningrad on 5 November 1960. After 36 days at sea she decanted part of the expedition onto the ice shelf on the Princess Astrid Coast. Their task was to build a new Antarctic polar base inland at Schirmacher Oasis and overwinter there. After nine weeks, on 18 February 1961, the new base, called Novolazarevskaya, was opened…One of the expedition’s members was the 27 year old Leningrad surgeon Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov. He had interrupted a promising scholarly career and left on the expedition shortly before he was due to defend his dissertation on new methods of operating on cancer of the oesophagus. In the Antarctic he was first and foremost the team’s doctor, although he also served as the meteorologist and the driver of their terrain vehicle.
After several weeks Rogozov fell ill. He noticed symptoms of weakness, malaise, nausea, and, later, pain in the upper part of his abdomen, which shifted to the right lower quadrant. His body temperature rose to 37.5°C. Rogozov wrote in his diary:
“It seems that I have appendicitis. I am keeping quiet about it, even smiling. Why frighten my friends? Who could be of help? A polar explorer’s only encounter with medicine is likely to have been in a dentist’s chair.”
All the available conservative treatment was applied (antibiotics, local cooling), but the patient’s general condition was getting worse: his body temperature rose, vomiting became more frequent.
“I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me… This is it…I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself …It’s almost impossible … but I can’t just fold my arms and give up… The guys have found out. They keep coming by to calm me down. And I’m upset with myself—I’ve spoiled everyone’s holiday. Tomorrow is May Day. And now everyone’s running around, preparing the autoclave. We have to sterilise the bedding, because we’re going to operate. (more…)
NCBI ROFL: But can seers see Cici selling seashells by the seashore?
Intuition through time: what does the seer see?
“OBJECTIVE: A great deal of human activity is involved in anticipating the future, from predicting the next influenza strain to the expectations that underlie the placebo effect. Most models of anticipation take for granted that events unfold in a unidirectional flow of time, from past to future. Two experiments were conducted to test this assumption. DESIGN: Pupillary dilation, spontaneous blinking, and eye movements were tracked before, during, and after participants viewed photographs with varying degrees of emotional affect. RESULTS: Data contributed by 74 unselected volunteers in two experiments showed that: (a) pupillary dilation and spontaneous blinking were found to increase more before emotional versus calm photos (combined P = .00009), (b) horizontal eye movements indicated a brain hemisphere asymmetry before viewing photos, appropriate to both the emotionality (P = .05) and the valence of the future images (P = .01), (c) participants selected for independently obtaining significant differential effects in pupillary dilation showed positive correlations between their eye movements before versus during exposure to randomly selected photos (P = .002), and (d) a possible “transtemporal interference” effect was observed when the probability of observing future images was varied (P = .05 [two-tailed])… …CONCLUSIONS: These studies, which replicate conceptual similar experiments, suggest that sometimes seers do see the future.”
Thanks to Fred for today’s ROFL!
NCBI ROFL: When late-night SciFi becomes reality.
Photosensitive seizures provoked while viewing “pocket monsters,” a made-for-television animation program in Japan.
“PURPOSE: To describe the recent epidemic of photosensitive seizure that occurred in relation to an episode of the television animation program “Pocket Monsters,” we report four patients who experienced seizures while watching the episode in question. We also report some technical aspects of the program episode… In addition, we reviewed the “Pocket Monsters” episode, focusing our attention on the visual techniques used with reference to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) guidelines… Rapid changes in color are believed to be responsible for the photosensitive seizures because all four patients had seizures at around 18:50, when seconds of deep red and bright blue flashes, alternating at a frequency of 12 Hz, were shown. CONCLUSIONS: Regulations for technical aspects of children’s programming, including the use of colors, are urgently needed in Japan to prevent a repeated incident.”
