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A long time ago, in a lab far, far away ...

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Is that a subwoofer in your bedroom?

In the name of research, participants were willing to have a large subwoofer blasting noise at them while they slept, to see if it would make them feel ill. It didn't .

Stereo smelling

We see in stereo, we hear in stereo, we also smell in stereo . In this study, participants were given a flowery smell at a high concentration in one nostril, and low in the other. Then they looked at a ' visually presented optic-flow stimuli that simulated self-movement ' - basically a video that looks as if you are flying through star-filled space. When asked to say which side was a stronger smell, they could not say. But when asked to which side they were flying through space, they consistently guessed towards the more smelly side. The authors suggest that we evolved a sense of smell for ' navigating in a chemical world '.

Gravity, our invisible friend

The perfect gravity-assisted ward round – which starts with patients at the top of the hospital and works down sequentially – remains an elusive dream for all those whose rounds require them to see patients scattered over various floors. Although a pure anti-gravity ward round is easily avoided, bleeps, lost radiology request forms, and realising that one's stethoscope has been left on level 7 may all necessitate traipsing back up stairs, resulting in a partial anti-gravity ward round . Not infrequently, consciousness becomes impaired at some point during the round; the so-called complex partial anti-gravity ward round . In such situations, a cup of tea is generally curative.

Toponymous gastroenteritides

Delhi belly Nile runs Cairo colon Rangoon runs Bali belly Aztec two-step Hong Kong dog Bonus eponym: Montezuma's revenge

I think, therefore iPhone

Our ward round was brought to a halt by a Portuguese patient who spoke no English. The interpreter would not be available until tomorrow, and we tried in vain to explain to him that he would need a coronary angiogram (a challenging mime). The consultant produced his smartphone and proudly declared that his translator app would save the day.  ' Do you have any pain? ' he asked the machine. ' Do you have any pain? ' it asked the patient, in flawless Portuguese.  ' You'll need a test called an angiogram ,' he told the machine.  ' You'll need a testicular angiogram ,' it told the patient, without so much as a blush. 

Umpolung

This is a such a satisfying word to say, or just look at. Used in a sentence, here .