“The Ministry of Silly Walks” is a sketch from a Monty Python comedy troupe’s TV episode. It is a jibe at the inefficiency of government bureaucracy, and it opens with the Minister walking in a rather peculiar manner to his work — called the Ministry of Silly Walks. Mr Pudey is waiting to confer with the Minister to apply for a government grant for developing his silly walks. Actually, Cleese walks in a variety of silly ways throughout the sketch. “It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that have earned the sketch its popularity,” said one critic. Based on an actual gait analysis, Dartmouth researchers Erin E Butler and Nathaniel J Dominy found that the Minister’s silly walk is 6.7 times more variable than a normal walk. Bureaucratic inefficiency links the sketch to the hurdles associated with academic research. Applying for funding may require a 150-page proposal followed by a review by a panel of researchers. Peer review protocols often require that the panellists must reach a consensus of at least 75% to approve a proposal. It’s truly a series of silly walks.
SNEAK PEEK
1. Fibre factor: One
Wearing clothes can release greater quantities of microfibres to the environment than washing them. The figures respectively are up to 4,000 and 400 fibres per gram of fabric. Quantities released directly into the air weren’t included in previous estimations. Who found it?
1. Dr Francesca De Falco (IPCB-CNR, Italy)
2. Fibre factor: Two
Mountains of clothing waste reach the world’s landfills each year due to rising standards of living and changing clothing trends. Who devised a low-cost method that can convert waste denim into viscose-type fibres that are either white or the original colour of the garment?
2. Nolene Byrne & team (Source: American Chemical Society)
3. Carrying the dead
Baboon mothers living in the wild carry dead infants for up to ten days. This is baffling because the reason is not unawareness of death. This is gleaned from 12 cases of group behaviour to infants’ deaths, recorded over 13 years in Namibia. Who reported the trait?
3. UCL anthropologist Dr Alecia Carter
4. It’s spring already?
Why those endless days of childhood seemed to last so much longer than they do now? The clue is in the ever-slowing speed at which images are picked and processed by the brain as we age. Who found that this slowdown speeds up our perception of time passing?
4. Duke mechanical engineering professor Adrian Bejan
5. Homicidal ideation
“I could kill you” is a figure of speech many of us use in times of extreme anger or frustration, without really meaning it. But a small percentage of people (12% in a study) really mean it when they say it. Who observed that “I could kill you” can lead some to actual crime?
5. Matt DeLisi, an ISU professor of sociology & criminal justice
6. Egocentric bias
Some parents rely heavily on their own feelings in gauging the welfare of the family as a whole. While parents of 10-to-11-year-olds routinely overestimate their children’s happiness, parents of 15-to-16-year-olds would rather underestimate it. Who noticed it in a survey?
6. Dr Belen Lopez-Perez (Plymouth University)
7. Imagine moving
As a device, a clutch engages and disengages power transmission. Some signals in the motor cortex act like a series of clutches (groups of firing neurons) when it comes to moving. Certain cells do fire even when we just imagine a movement. Who made the discovery?
7. Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos (University of Chicago)
8. Rats beating cats
Rats overestimate the risks of predation. In the presence of cats, they adjust their behaviour, spending more time in burrows. In a study, only two rats were killed in 79 days. And cats pose a threat to wildlife. Who questioned the benefit of using cats to control city rats?
8. Dr Michael H. Parsons, a visiting scholar at Fordham University.
9. The same dynamics
Division of labour in an ant colony is socially advantageous. The gap between liberals and conservatives causes polarisation in a country. So, these two aren’t typically considered together. Who said that “the same dynamics could theoretically give rise to them both”?
9. Evolutionary biologists Chris Tokita, with Corina Tarnita.
[ANSWERS]
1. Dr Francesca De Falco (IPCB-CNR, Italy)
2. Nolene Byrne & team (Source: American Chemical Society)
3. UCL anthropologist Dr Alecia Carter
4. Duke mechanical engineering professor Adrian Bejan
5. Matt DeLisi, an ISU professor of sociology & criminal justice
6. Dr Belen Lopez-Perez (Plymouth University)
7. Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos (University of Chicago)
8. Dr Michael H. Parsons, a visiting scholar at Fordham University.
9. Evolutionary biologists Chris Tokita, with Corina Tarnita.
QUIZ No. 946
1. The spread of anything from COVID-19 to false news has an evolution. Who said it?
– Osman Yagan
– Matilda “Tilly” Bagshawe
– Russell Warren Howe
1. Osman Yagan
2. Earth rotated 372 times a year at the end of the time of the dinosaurs. Who found it?
– Niels de Winter
– Richard Lee Armstrong
– William C. Krumbein
2. Niels de Winter
3. Noise pollution can affect behaviours not related to noise? Who found this in crabs?
– Emily E. Carter
– William Skinner Cooper
– Raymond Lindeman
3. Emily E. Carter
4. Which charity intends to “queer up science spaces and science up queer spaces”?
– High Fives Foundation
– The Heritage Foundation
– Pride in STEM
4. Pride in STEM
5. Which novel contributed many terms, under the head Newspeak, to popular media?
– Fahrenheit 451
– Invitation to a Beheading
– Nineteen Eighty-Four
5. Nineteen Eighty-Four