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Findings

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

Researchers discovered an “Obama effect”: African Americans’ performance on a verbal test improved, to equal that of white Americans, immediately after Obama’s nomination and his election. African-American parents were found to be warier than white American parents of enrolling their children in medical-research studies. Vicks VapoRub may harm children, zinc supplements reduce alcohol-related birth defects, and rats whose mothers drink during pregnancy are, on reaching puberty, excited by the smell of alcohol on another rat’s breath. Orphaned infant chimps who are cared for lovingly by humans are smarter than human babies. Women are good at distinguishing cute babies from ugly babies, but menopausal women are as bad as men at doing so. A newborn boy in Colorado was found to have a hand, a foot, a thigh, and intestines growing in his brain. Girls are four times better than boys at growing up with heroin-addict parents, teenagers in love get in less trouble, and adolescents with unpopular names are more likely to commit crimes. Cows with names produce 3.4 percent more milk than nameless cows.

A Scottish study determined that romantic  comedies can create unrealistic expectations, and researchers at the University of the Balearic Islands determined that Spaniards prefer passionate love. Dutch doctors who observed heterosexual couples having sex in MRI scanners found that the missionary position causes the penis to curve like a boomerang; Pfizer was planning to introduce Xiaflex, a drug that straightens crooked penises. In western Iran, the growing popularity of taqaandan, a pastime in which the top half of the erect penis is wrenched sharply to one side and “popped,” and which has led to an epidemic of penile fractures, was becoming a public-health concern. “The practice of taqaandan is increasing,” said urologist Javaad Zargooshi, “and we don’t know why.” The Persian army was found to have used poisonous gas on Roman troops in its 256 a.d. siege of the city of Dura, and a 2,700-year-old marijuana stash discovered in the Gobi Desert was judged to be of  high quality.

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