Pharmacy Daily | Dispensary Corner 24 Sep 12

THIS year’s group of Ig Nobel prize winners has been announced, highlighting quirky discoveries by researchers from around the globe. Among the winners of the spoof awards recorded in the official “Annals of Improbable Research” is a Swedish scientist who solved the problem of why people’s hair turned green when living in certain houses in the town of Anderslov, Sweden. The culprit turned out to be a combination of hot water and copper pipes. A group of US researchers was honoured for their work in proving that chimpanzees are able to recognise each other using photographs of their backsides. And two Japanese scientists were cited for inventing the so-called SpeechJammer - a device which records a person talking and plays it back with a very slight delay. "It's a small thing you aim at someone who is droning on and on," said an Ig Nobel spokesman. "What the person hears is just off enough that it completely disconcerts and discombobulates them, and they stop talking. “It has thousands of potential good uses," he said. HERE’S a retailing brainwave that you’d probably only see in the US. A jeweller in metropolitan Atlanta is offering a free hunting rifle with every purchase of a diamond worth US$2500 or more. The owner, Mike Geller, said he got the idea from a similar car yard promotion, and reassured the public by saying that his staff aren’t actually handing out guns at the counter, but are instead providing a voucher which can be redeemed at a nearby gun dealer. Customers must also “follow all laws governing the purchase of firearms,” according to USA Today. A number of reports quip that the offer will give couples forced into a shotgun wedding the opportunity to fight back.

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