New Thief Barks up the Wrong Trees, Shoes Make Strange Sound; More on Cows, Crown Jewels, Another First for Faraday

Thief barks up the wrong trees

A reader sent in a gem about how a tree thief was nabbed. According to the Fall 2004 issue of Purdue University's Agricultures magazine, a landowner in Warren County, Ind., reported that two prized trees, a walnut and a cherry, had been stolen from his property. Only stumps and some branches remained.

Stumped, investigators turned to Purdue molecular geneticist Keith Woeste, who, using DNA fingerprinting, was able to match wood from one of the stumps to a walnut log confiscated from a lumber mill.

Conservation officials identified the poacher as a logger who had been contracted to remove trees from an adjacent property. The wood cutter decided to settle out of court, and the property owner received triple damages for the value of his trees.

Shoes make strange sound; more on cows

A chemical mix-up involving shoes has created quite a stink. According to an Associated Press report, customers complained that with every step, their shoes made the sound of someone passing gas. Shoemaker Goosebumps Products subsequently sued supplier Bell Chem Corp., accusing it of delivering a low-grade, watered down glycerin that created air bubbles in the insole gel. Goosebumps had to toss out at least 35,000 pairs of the gaseous shoes.

On a somewhat related topic, Ken Liska of San Diego sent in a clipping from the Feb. 2 San Diego Union Tribune that says cow belching--not cow manure--is what's contributing to air pollution. Cow manure has been said to be the number two source of smog, right behind cars and trucks.

Susan A. S. Parker of Memphis adds another tidbit to our file on cows. After reading about children swallowing magnets (C&EN, Jan. 10, page 96), Parker--who says she grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin--recalled how her father would insert a magnet into the throat of each new cow that joined his herd. The magnet would protect the cow from the dangerous things it would eat, such as barbed wire. If only the magnet could also prevent belching.

Crown jewels

People who suspected that the hope Diamond has a French connection are right. An analysis determined that the brilliant blue gem, notoriously associated with bad luck, was cut from a larger stone that was once part of the crown jewels of France. The Associated Press reports that the diamond originated from a 115-carat stone found in India in 1668. The stone was sold to King Louis XIV of France, who had it cut into the 69-carat gem. The stone now sits in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Another first for Faraday

Michael Faraday, best known for his work in electromagnetism, apparently dabbled in immunology. In fact, he may have been the first to use chemicals to destroy viruses, a reader says.

Seymour S. Block of Gainesville, Fla., writes that while doing research for a book, he stumbled on an 1827 Lancet paper describing experiments by a Mr. Faraday in which the cowpox inoculum used in smallpox vaccination was destroyed by a 1:50 dilution of chlorine gas and could no longer produce a reaction when used to vaccinate people.

"Could this Mr. Faraday have been the famous Michael Faraday?" Block asked. Some more digging led him to history of science lecturer Frank A. J. L. James, who had been analyzing Faraday's correspondences.

James concluded that the Mr. Faraday mentioned in the journal "is without a shadow of a doubt Michael Faraday." He continues, "This is exactly the sort of work which Faraday did in large amounts when he was not working on electromagnetism."

This week's column was written by Linda Wang . Please send comments and suggestions to newscripts@acs.org.