Your stomach's a rat fink

You've been waiting all week for this, I know: "Better Living Through Science" Tuesday. Take notes, now.

Next time you're in for a polygraph (you buncha felons!), you need to be more concerned about your stomach giving you away than your heart rate. A researcher at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB - one of our very favorite clients at P+W and Graphics Lab, by the way) has found that there's more correlation between lying and stomach changes than lying and heart changes. Yo' goose is cooked once the polygraph folks figure this out.

And while we're on the subject of food, there's a guy in England who's spent years developing a bean that won't make you so gassy. He came up with a "Flatometer" to measure how much gas beans produce (don't ask about how this works) and went on from there to breed a more digestible bean. I love beans. You love beans. We all love beans. Now everyone around us will love beans while we're eating them. (Although it kinda takes the fun out of it, eh?)

Here's some heartening news. Evangelical Christians are coming around to the fact that a clean environment is biblical, and they're starting to put pressure on legislators to pass laws reducing carbon dioxide emissions. I'm glad they finally found all the passages about good stewardship of the earth that are heaped around the one or two verses condemning gays. If this is true - the evangelical environmental movement - it is good news for all of us.

Synchronicity. Humans are just full of it. When given the chance we act in unison. That's what was behind (across?) the infamous swaying Millennium Bridge in London. Pedestrians felt a slight sway in the bridge (nothing dangerous about it, though), adjusted their walking patterns that became synchronized with everyone else crossing the bridge, making the bridge sway even more. Hey, I gotta admit that I was sorely disappointed when I walked across that bridge in May and it didn't sway (I'm a lover of swinging bridges. Yes, I'm the one who always jumped her way across . . .) "C'mon people now. Smile on your brother. Everybody get together . . ."

Time to put the test-tubes and Bunsen burners away and head for the office. Try not to blow anything up.