IT’S NOT TRUE UNTIL WE SPEND YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO PROVE IT

Regular readers of this column know that my favourite source of news comes from scientific experiments which are either completely pointless to begin with or which only prove the obvious. But at least one scientist has stood up to defend the practice of researching everything under the sun. Professor Peter Holmes, quoted in The Scotsman, explains that "some research might seem blindingly obvious but we have to be careful about how some of the things taken to be true have never actually been proved.” Good point. The article then goes on to list the most pointless facts science has discovered in the past 12 months, including these now-scientific-truths: elephants hate walking up hills; men need war and aggression in order to cooperate; women are better at remembering flowers than reading maps; woodpeckers don’t get headaches; women don’t like men with squeaky voices; teenagers are sulky; and women decide whether they would date a man within 30 seconds of meeting him. (The Scotsman)