Recent scientific inquiries have ranged from the bacterial load in swimwear to the musical tastes of laboratory mice, revealing surprising details about everyday life and experimental methodology. The findings, reported across multiple studies, underscore the often-absurd intersection of rigorous research and mundane topics.
French Swimwear Rules and Hygiene Debates
A peculiar law in France (and some Italian regions) mandates that men in public pools wear tight-fitting swimwear, banning loose shorts. The stated reason is hygiene: looser garments supposedly introduce contaminants into the water. However, a recent study involving 21 male academics challenged this claim. Participants wore either briefs or shorts for two hours, then immersed them in water for bacterial testing. The results? Shorts yielded more bacterial growth than briefs, though researchers acknowledged the experiment’s oddities.
The study raises a simple question: if bacteria are released when squeezed from shorts, is this genuinely a problem? The authors themselves admit uncertainty, proposing that briefs’ elasticity may reduce contact between the rectum and fabric. Fluid dynamics inside swimwear remain unexplored, leading to a call for grant proposals to investigate this overlooked area.
Lego’s Enterprise-D: A Bold Design Challenge
Lego has partnered with Star Trek to release a model of the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation. The ship’s sleek curves and lack of straight lines presented a significant design challenge. The designers solved this by using rectangular blocks, but missed a fine detail: the model contains a gold plaque that reads “To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Mouse Music Preferences: Taylor Swift Trumps Mozart
Researchers tested the musical tastes of lab mice, comparing Mozart with electronic dance music, classic rock (Nazareth, FireHouse, Whitesnake), and Taylor Swift. The study pointed out that much of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major is below the range of mouse hearing (2 kHz to 100 kHz).
The experiment involved a “Mouse Disco Testing Arena” with soundproofed rooms and different playlists. Surprisingly, mice showed no preference for any genre except avoiding Mozart altogether. The study concluded that mice may not appreciate classical music as much as humans assume.
These findings highlight the absurdity of applying human-centric biases to animal behavior while underscoring the importance of empirical testing even in the most unlikely scenarios.
