Some elite Paralympic sprinters face an unsettling hurdle. Before stepping on the track in an authorised race, they need to “remove their legs and swap them out with ones that make them shorter”. This is the outcome of a recent International Paralympic Committee rule. It lowered the Maximum Allowable Standing Height (MASH) for double, below-the-knee amputees racing in prosthetic legs. It is intended to stop unfair advantages, but it comes from the assumption that greater height equals greater speed. UC Boulder researchers oppose the rule. Researcher Alena Grabowsk said, “height makes no difference when it comes to maximum speed.” Well, longer legs allow longer steps, and that means you should be able to run faster. It makes biomechanical sense, but there is a catch. Researcher Paolo Taboga said, “while you do take longer steps, you cycle your legs slower so, in the end, the two even out.” So the question is why rule-makers need a rule change if it only forces athletes to buy new configurations and go through a lot of hassle?
SNEAK PEEK
1. No place to hide
If you leave or have never joined a social media platform like Facebook, your friends’ activities still provide 95% of the “potential predictive accuracy” of your future activities, even without any of your personal data. Who said, “there’s no place to hide in a social network”?
1. Lewis Mitchell (now at the University of Adelaide)
2. It’s nothing unique
Our brain’s left and right hemispheres show an asymmetry. It’s thought to have occurred when the human lineage became distinct from that of our closest living relatives. Who found that it’s an ancient asymmetry pattern that was already present in the great apes as well?
2. Simon Neubauer (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology)
3. A sniff of sweat
We may sense happiness if exposed to the chemicals in sweat produced under happiness in another person. People who are happy can infuse others around them with happiness. “Happiness sweat” is somewhat like smiling. Who demonstrated that “it is infectious”?
3. Psychologist Gun R. Semin (Utrecht University)
4. Just a single good
Imagine a person who shops at an organic food supermarket and then drives home in an SUV car known for its heavy ecological impact. Who observed that typical consumers may unconsciously use a single ethical aspect and ignore other values when they shop?
4. Dr. Nora Szech with Jannis Engel (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
5. In five million years
The proto-Earth (the precursor of our planet) formed within a time span of five million years. This is just about a minute and a half on an astronomical scale. Who argued that, if this is correct, the ingredients of life are more likely to be found elsewhere in the universe?
5. Cosmochemist Martin Bizzarro (University of Copenhagen)
6. Cooperating in irony
Nothing is wrong with the intuition that being cultured helps us cooperate, but the irony is missing. Culture allows groups of people to be different, and therefore to compete. It is precisely this group competition that sculpted our cooperativity. Who posited this irony?
6. Sarah Mathew with Carla Handley (Arizona State University)
7. Modern break-ups
Break-ups always hurt, but keeping a distance was possible in the past. Modern social media could really make it impossible. A several-year-old text or selfie would pop up out of nowhere, delivering an “emotional wallop”. Who studied this mission impossible online?
7. Anthony T. Pinter (University of Colorado at Boulder)
8. Fish in the Sahara
The present arid, hot and windy Saharan Tadrart Acacus mountains were rich in water, life and human settlements for much of the early and middle Holocene (10,200 to 4650 years BP). Who reported that 80% of the food remains from the early years consisted of fish?
8. Wim Van Neer (Natural History Museum, Belgium)
9. Sleep or wakeful
The insula and the cingulate cortex get activated when we perceive fear in a wakeful state. Interestingly, the same brain areas are at work when we see a creepy dream. Who monitored it and proposed that our dreams may potentially prepare us to face real-life dangers?
9. Lampros Perogamvros (University of Geneva)
[ANSWERS]
1. Lewis Mitchell (now at the University of Adelaide)
2. Simon Neubauer (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology)
3. Psychologist Gun R. Semin (Utrecht University)
4. Dr. Nora Szech with Jannis Engel (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
5. Cosmochemist Martin Bizzarro (University of Copenhagen)
6. Sarah Mathew with Carla Handley (Arizona State University)
7. Anthony T. Pinter (University of Colorado at Boulder)
8. Wim Van Neer (Natural History Museum, Belgium)
9. Lampros Perogamvros (University of Geneva)
QUIZ No. 943
1. Who developed a technique to analyse the Moon’s soil using only a grain of dust?
– Jennika Greer
– Viktor A. Ambartsumian
– Henry Norris Russell
1. Jennika Greer
2. Who identified the subtalar joint in the ankle as the human body’s ‘steering wheel’?
– Dr Gianluca Tozzi
– Raymond Brunson Huey
– Sean C. Senechal
2. Dr Gianluca Tozzi
3. Who contended that “most people who do not smile are not necessarily unhappy”?
– Aleix Martinez
– Milton Hyland Erickson
– Thomas McGlashan
3. Aleix Martinez
4. Who put out the proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder in 1992?
– Herman Wedel Major
– Friedrich Meggendorfer
– Richard P. Bentall
4. Richard P. Bentall
5. Who did a painting inspired by the phrase “I saw the figure 5 in gold” in a poem?
– Charles Demuth
– Elfriede Lohse-Wachtler
– Ralph A. Blakelock
5. Charles Demuth