The Truth Is Out There

You can tell that something significant happened this week because The New York Times used a 96pt type for its front page headline “OBAMA” on Wednesday – for only the fifth time. Others reported the millennium, the moon landings, 9/11 and “NIXON RESIGNS”.

Alarmed by Britain’s teen drinking epidemic, parents might encourage their kids to watch television. But, as the Rand Corporation found this week, exposure to modern TV content increases the chances of teens catching that most gruesome of all sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy. One in 21 teenagers who took part in the study were “involved in a pregnancy” by its conclusion, with the most square-eyed twice as likely to be “involved”.

Why is the credit crunch good news for couples for who are having trouble conceiving a child? It’s not a bawdy joke: statistics complied by researchers at New Scientist magazine reveal that the number of women willing to sell their eggs to IVF clinics has risen sharply – by as much as 900 per cent at one clinic in Northbrook, Illinois.

The award for most unlikely correlation of the week goes to “rain” and “autism”. According to scientists at Cornell University in the US, the chance of children developing the condition increases by 30 per cent if they grow up in an area with high levels of precipitation. Though no one is sure why, a deficiency of vitamin D (created by exposure to sunlight) may explain it.

Bees can count, according to researchers from the University of Queensland. Only to four unfortunately; that’s one less than a chimpanzee, and three less than the pigeon – arithmetical king of the animal kingdom.

Regulators are hitting China’s “gold farmers” – the thousands of Chinese workers employed to play videogames, earn digital rewards, and sell them on to rich Americans for hard cash. The government has decided the $1.4bn industry has to be put on the country’s balance books, and will levy a charge of 20 per cent on all profits gained on the sale of virtual goods.

Deaths from tornadoes in the US have already risen by 53 per cent this year. Digging into the numbers, statisticians have now found that you’re two and a half times more likely to suffer termination by twister at night. Though only 27 per cent of tornadoes were nocturnal, so were 39 per cent of the ensuing fatalities.

Religion, it transpires, is spread by parasites (not televangelists), according to an article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Tropical areas of the world suffer both from a high number of religions and high incidence of disease. And according to scientists who mapped the spread of the bugs, they cause social groups to split, leading, eventually, to the profusion of religions. So, Brazil boasts 159 religions, while Canada has 15. The society’s learned members, however, offer no explanation for the spread of Scientology.