There’s something you should know about dogs…

There are times, dear reader, when the miasma of lethargy within which the Science Lite team ordinarily operates is blown away. Times when our collective attention is scruffed roughly and pulled to account. And, it’s fair to say, when the Editor bellows the words “North-facing dog defecation…look into it!” it’s one of those times. Look into it we did, and amazingly enough we are here to tell you that yes… it does appear that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body with Earth's north-south magnetic lines. This must be a joke, surely? Well kind of…if you haven’t guessed already, it’s that time of year again; the Ig Nobel Prizes are here to make us laugh and then make us think. The Biology Prize this year has gone to Hynek Burda, of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and colleagues for amassing the kind of evidence that might turn the stomach of lesser researchers. Over two years the team measured the body direction of 70 dogs whilst they defecated some 1,893 times and urinated 5,582 times. Wow that is a lot of time, patience and of course…excreta. But it was worth it; publishing in Frontiers in Biology the team claim this is not only the first time magnetic sensitivity has been shown in dogs, but the first time it has been shown in a measurable, predictable way in any mammal.  "Finally,” they say “it forces biologists and physicians to seriously reconsider effects magnetic storms might pose on organisms." Indeed – especially when they are ‘taking care of business’ so to speak. It really is enough to put you off your breakfast. Speaking of which… Next up in the roll-call of awards – run by the excellent Annals of Improbable Research – is the Neuroscience Prize. It went to a joint team from Canada and China for showing that it was perfectly normal – common even – to see the face of Jesus in toast. Using fMRI they managed to show the specific brain region (the right fusiform face area) which is responsible for these illusions when subjects are shown nothing but images of ‘noise’. This tendency to see order in randomness – such as face in the charred areas of a piece of toast – is a well-established phenomenon called pareidolia. And it turns out that this kind of processing is hard wired – even chimps experience it. Although what they are doing looking at burnt toast is another matter entirely… Next to the Physics Prize – and what a comedy classic this turned out to be.  Iyoshi Mabuchi's team from the Kitasato University in Japan have finally uncovered just why it is that slipping on a banana skin is such fodder for comedy. Over sixty experiments they measured the friction of banana skin in the lab, and showed why apple and orange peel are not quite so hazardous. This certainly fulfils the first part of the Ig mantra…it has indeed made us laugh; but has it really made us think? Well it should says Mabuchi – the polysaccharide follicular gels that give banana skins their slippery properties are also found in the membranes where our bones meet. "This concept will help to design a joint prosthesis," he says. And finally to the Medicine Prize, and to be frank there isn’t much we can add to this. Ian Humphreys, of Michigan State University in the US, and colleagues won their Ig for showing that nasal packing with strips of cured pork is a useful treatment for uncontrollable nose bleeds. If only they had of collaborated with the team who work on dog defecation…we image they could really have done with some robust nasal packing – nose bleeds or not.