Ready salted
WHAT comes in snack packets and goes crunch when you eat it? Jellyfish, as connoisseurs of Asian cuisine well know. But how the gelatinous animals are transformed into a pickle-like texture is still poorly understood.
Traditionally, the delicacy is cured in salt and potassium alum for several weeks, but Mathias Clausen and his team at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense were able to replicate the process in just a few days using ethanol.
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Yet they are less certain what they are putting in their mouths. 鈥淟ittle is known about the molecular anatomy of the jellyfish,鈥� Clausen said, adding that he was 鈥渟till not completely sure鈥� what the tissue they had transformed was. Reassuring stuff.
Despite this, with fish stocks in decline, the team says that jellyfish could become an important foodstuff, particularly if the texture can be made more palatable. Are you ready for this jelly?
Anti-social media
LATE last month, UK science minister Sam Gyimah calling on parents to limit their children鈥檚 use of social media. Too much screen time, it said, was causing distress. It called for watermarks to identify falsified images, and classes on how to use social media in a healthy way, such as creating your own content.
鈥淲hat happens to food passing its best before date? Paul Burall knows exactly when to look: his Tesco flapjack bites, says the label, expire on 15 March 2018 at 13:48鈥�
Unfortunately, creating your own content on social media can go awry, as Gyimah鈥檚 colleague Ben Bradley, Conservative MP for Mansfield, was in the process of finding out. Days earlier, Bradley had tweeted an accusation that opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn had 鈥渟old British secrets to communist spies鈥�.
Faster than you can say 鈥淔ake news!鈥�, lawyers for Corbyn appeared in Bradley鈥檚 mentions column. Bradley found himself posting an apology for distress caused by his 鈥渦ntrue and false鈥� statement and promising to make a substantial donation to a charity of . Never mind the children: perhaps we ought to limit MPs鈥� use of social media.
Play it by ear
HOW do you tell a king penguin from his queen? Get them to sing you a song. Antarctic scientists struggle to distinguish males from females of the species, as they look almost identical. Traditionally, beak length was used to sort the royalty, but this is only accurate in four out of five cases.
Happily, a new study in Ibis shows that a trained ear can tell apart the distinct vocal patterns of male and female king penguins with perfect accuracy. The technique will let researchers keep tabs on penguin populations without needing to follow them into the throne room.
Turning heads in Peru
OVERSIZED coats and jewelled hair partings might have been in vogue recently at London Fashion Week, but 1300 years ago in what is now Peru, head binding was all the rage. A recent study reveals that, even then, different skull styles competed for dominance.
Anthropologist Matthew Velasco at Cornell University, New York, examined hundreds of skeletons uncovered in the Colca valley. He found that as head binding became the fashion, two distinct looks emerged: the Collaguas made their heads longer and narrower, while the Cavanas aimed for a wider, stouter skull.
In time, the Collagua style won out, as cultural identity in the region coalesced in the face of threats from beyond, including the Inca. Those with modified heads tended to be better fed and lead safer lives, suggesting that for ancient Peruvians, getting ahead in society meant just that.
Emoti-con
THE Unicode Consortium recently unveiled 157 new icons to jazz up text messages and soften passive-aggressive notes in shared kitchens. But not all is picture perfect in the world of typography.
The original proposal for a lobster emoji, submitted in June 2017, noted that the animals 鈥渁re well known for their red color, large claws and long segmented tails鈥�. Sadly, the number of legs wasn鈥檛 specified, resulting in Emojipedia 鈥� the unofficial reference guide to all things emoji 鈥� releasing a design that was two legs short of a full thermidor.
Not only that, the DNA symbol contained in the update was back to front, presenting a rare left-handed molecule instead of the more familiar right-twisted one.
In response, Emojipedia鈥檚 Jeremy Burge announced that the site would be updating its designs for accuracy. What鈥檚 the emoji for 鈥渞ed-faced鈥�?
Puffing along
PREVIOUSLY Feedback discussed the poronkusema, a Finnish unit of distance that describes how far a reindeer is believed to travel before relieving itself, roughly 7.5 kilometres (24 February).
鈥淭here鈥檚 an old French country measurement of distance, a 辫颈辫茅别, the distance you can walk while smoking one pipe of tobacco,鈥� says Ralph Hancock. 鈥淚f the pipe was large and smoked slowly, maybe this could be 7.5 km too.鈥�
Meanwhile, Richard Machin tells us that in Colombia, one horse rider asking directions from another might describe the distance as cinco puros. He explains: 鈥淎 puro is a cigar, so a puro is the time it takes to smoke one. At a gallop, this could equate to around 7.5 km, though that would be pushing it.鈥�
Instead, Richard places the conversion at about three puros to the poronkusema.
You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.