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The San Diego Union-Tribune


Daily discoveries for the scientifically bent

November 9, 2005

Brain sweat

Change one letter in each word to form a familiar saying: REVENUE IN SWEAT

More Brain Sweat

Last week's Brain Sweat posed this puzzle: Susie and Sally's last names are either Billingsley or Jenkins. Two of the following statements are false. What are the real names of each person? Susie's last name is Billingsley. Susie's last name is Jenkins. Sally's last name is Jenkins. The published answer was Sally Billingsley and Susie Jenkins. Because one of the first two statements had to be false, the third statement also had to be false. However, given the wording of the puzzle, a second answer is possible: Both women share the same last name: Billingsley.



– Desmond Morris

Brain sweat answer


Just asking


Prime numbers

110 – Estimated number of languages spoken at home by Alaskan schoolchildren

4,438 – Gallons of human breast milk dispensed last year by milk banks in North America

130 – Different names for the oak tree in American dialects

1,000:1 – Ratio of bacteria living in a pound of mud to those living in a pound of dirt

1:1 – Ratio in length of your wrist to elbow versus the length of your foot

Sources: Alaska Department of Education & Early Development; Mother's Milk Bank; "The Book of Numbers" by William Hartston (2000); W.T. Frankenberger Jr., UC Riverside; Harper's; "The Odd Body" by Stephen Juan (2004)


A Left-Hand Turn Around the World

David Wolman

DaCapo, 236 pages, $23.95

It's only right that Wolman is a lefty, for who else but a southpaw would traverse the world in search of answers to whether left-handed people are more creative, live longer or sucked their thumb a lot in the womb.

Along the way, Wolman consults an Indian palm reader, visits a Scottish castle designed for left-handed sword fights and plays a round with members of the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers.

Incidentally, Wolman's travels bring him to San Diego tomorrow. He will be doing a reading and book-signing at Warwick's bookstore (7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla) at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (858) 454-0347 or visit

"True Facts"

San Diego is at the same latitude as Charleston, S.C.

Jacksonville, Fla. is farther west than Youngstown, Ohio.

Crescent City is farther north than New Bedford, Mass.

Poetry for scientists

Her voice is so high it's absurd

It's so shrill that you can't hear a word

When she's something to say

She starts running away

So the pitch drops enough to be heard.

– Steve Offner on the Doppler effect

Mickey muse

Researchers have long known that when male mice smell female mice pheromones, they produce high-pitched sounds. But because the sounds are at frequencies beyond human hearing, nobody paid much attention to them until a pair of neuroscientists from Washington University in St. Louis recorded them.

Timothy Holy and Zhongsheng Guo were studying how pheromones affect brain function. They figured the sounds might provide clues to how mouse brains work. Using computers to lower the pitch so they could be analyzed, the scientists were surprised to find that the mouse vocalizations sounded a lot like bird song: long series of sometimes repeated chirps. Indeed, various mice sang different songs, suggesting that at least part of their repertoire may be learned.

What exactly are the mice singing about? At this point, no one knows, except that the old adage "quiet as a mouse" doesn't quite "sing" true anymore.


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