More random snippets!

The Week has suddenly become a fertile source of captivating research reports – or is it merely that I failed notice them before? Anyhow, here are two more offerings from last w/e’s edition. Apologies if you have seen either elsewhere before.

Peacemaker pigs

A group of researchers in Italy have been studying 104 pigs living on an ethical/organic farm at Cavagnolo near Turin where the pigs are able to roam free, or relatively free, in woodland conditions. It seems that when a fight breaks out between two pigs a third pig, often a relative, will intervene to calm the situation. It might rub noses with, or sit next to the victim of the aggression. This appears not only to calm the anxieties of the victim but also to calm the aggressor whose attacks become less frequent.

Check in here for a more technical description of their observations.

Octopuses* throw things at octopi* they don’t like

Another group of researchers at Jervis Bay in Australia have been filming octopodes under water. While sometimes they appear to just be throwing rubbish out of their dens, in the majority of cases they actually seemed to be throwing shells, algae or silt from the sea floor at other octopi. This is hard work when you are under water.

The researchers concluded that this was aggressive throwing as the thrower’s skin darkened as they were throwing (a sign of agression), because they threw with considerable force – and because the target was seen to duck. They did not discover what the victim of the attack had done to offend!

Check out the full report here.

* Meriam Webster Search Dictionary:
‘The current champion in the Battle of Troublesome Pluralization is octopus, which, depending on which dictionary is consulted, may be written in three different ways: octopi, octopuses, and octopodes…..  The three plurals for octopus come from the different ways the English language adopts plurals. Octopi is the oldest plural of octopus, coming from the belief that words of Latin origin should have Latin endings. Octopuses was the next plural, giving the word an English ending to match its adoption as an English word. Lastly, octopodes stemmed from the belief that because octopus is originally Greek, it should have a Greek ending.’

Medical School Culinary Medicine Programs

And finally, not from The Week but from Medscape – and while less quirky, definitely encouraging.

Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of the University of Arizona at Phoenix’s Culinary Medicine Program, is spearheading a growing movement to include training on how to cook healthy meals in medical education. He believes doctors need to see food as medicine to be able to stem the tide of chronic disease which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, now affects 6 in 10 adults in the United States.

The programme offers an elective course for third- and fourth-year medical students introducing the evidence-based field of culinary medicine. Marvasti’s goal is for the course to teach students how to use this science and the joy of cooking to improve long-term health outcomes for their patients. As part of the programme, students learn cooking fundamentals through chef demonstrations and hands-on practice. The aim is to teach students how food can be used to prevent and treat many chronic diseases.

For more details see here on Medscape.