From Celery Jell-O to chocolate French fries, here are ten foods that didn't have a very long shelf-life.]]> by Terri Schlichenmeyer

From Celery Jell-O to chocolate French fries, here are ten foods that didn’t have a very long shelf-life.

1. Coffee-Flavored Jell-O® (Celery, Too!)

In 1918, the makers of Jell-O introduced a new flavor: coffee. Its release was ostensibly based on the logic that, since lots of people like to drink coffee with dessert, they’d be game for combining the two after-dinner treats. Not the case. The company soon realized if anyone wants dessert coffee, they’re going to have a cup of it. In fact, if anyone wants coffee at all, they’re going to have a cup of it. Not surprisingly, this realization came about the time they yanked the product off the shelves. Coffee wasn’t Jell-O’s only misstep: Cola-flavored Jell-O was sold for about a year starting in 1942, and for a brief while, the clear, wiggly dessert was sold in celery and chocolate flavors, too.

2. Reddi-Bacon

Any company smart enough to bless mankind with sprayable whipped cream—the sort that promotes direct-to-mouth feeding—has got to know a thing or two about immediate gratification. But sadly, the makers of Reddi-wip® were unable to meld their keen understanding of human laziness with one of processed meat. They figured, if you’re cooking breakfast in the morning and you’ve got a hankering for bacon, why dirty up a pan you’ll only have to clean later? The solution: foil-wrapped Reddi-Bacon you could pop into your toaster for piping-hot pork in minutes.

While it seemed perfect for the busy 1970s household, the absorbent pad designed to soak up the dripping grease tended to leak, creating not only a fire hazard, but also a messy (if not totally ruined) toaster. Ultimately, the product lasted about as long as it took to cook; the company scrapped it before it went to market nationwide.

3. Cereal Mates

Sometimes, new products fail because they’re simply bad ideas (ahem, New Coke). Other times, it’s because they’re just impossible to market. Such was the case for Cereal Mates. Beating the dead horse of über-convenient breakfast foods, Kellogg’s introduced Cereal Mates in 1997. The idea was simple: a small box of cereal, a container of specially packaged milk (no refrigeration required!), and a plastic spoon. It was the perfect A.M. answer for the person on the go … who enjoys warm milk on cereal. Trying to patch up one mistake with another, Kellogg’s then moved the product to the dairy section, where no sane person looks for cereal. On top of all that was the price. At about $1.50 for only four ounces of the stuff, Cereal Mates was deemed too expensive for most consumers. After two years, Kellogg’s pulled it from the shelves.

4. Flower-Flavored PEZ®

No, that’s not a typo. Although it would be equally disgusting, we’re talking about flower, not flour. Introduced in the late 1960s, flower-flavored PEZ was designed to appeal to the hippie generation—complete with a groovy, psychedelic dispenser. But even in the decade of free love, no love could be found for the flavor power of flower. Floral scents make for great perfume, but nobody eats perfume, and apparently, there’s a reason why. The flower version flopped, and became the next addition to PEZ’s long and disturbing list of flavor failures. Since its introduction in 1927, the company has also sold coffee, licorice, eucalyptus, menthol, and cinnamon flavors.

5. “I Hate Peas!”

For as long as children have been shoving Brussels sprouts under mashed potatoes and slipping green beans to the dog, parents have been hunting desperately for a way to end the vegetable discrimination. Finally, in the 1970s, American Kitchen Foods, Inc. came to the rescue (or at least tried) with the release of “I Hate Peas!” Since kids love French fries so much, the company decided that disguising peas in a fry-shaped form was a sure-fire way to trick tots into getting their vitamins. Not a chance. Children all over America saw through the ruse. After all, a pea is a pea is a pea, and the name of the product was more than apropos, no matter what it looked like. There were other thinly disguised vegetables in the company’s “I Hate” line, but kids hated those, too.

6. The Chicken Dinner Candy Bar

Fortunately for gastrointestinal tracts worldwide, this candy bar didn’t actually include chicken in its list of ingredients. And equally lucky for Sperry Candy Co., which introduced the “treat” in the 1920s, consumers actually figured this one out on their own. The company introduced the chocolate-and-peanut butter bar right before the onset of the Depression, hoping the name would give consumers the feeling they were about to have a big home-cooked meal at Grandma’s house—hence the juicy roast chicken on the advertisements. Strangely, the gimmick worked, even well after the economy recovered, and Chicken Dinner candy bars were available until the 1960s. Does this mean it qualifies as a true marketplace “flop”? No. Did we put it on the list anyway because it sounds like it really should have been? Absolutely.

7. Heublein’s Wine & Dine

In the mid-1970s, Heublein introduced Wine & Dine, an upscale, easy-to-make dinner that included a small bottle of vino. How refined. How decadent. How confusing. Consumers knew Heublein for their liquor and wines, so how were they supposed to know the wine included in Wine & Dine was an ingredient for the pasta sauce? Hasty consumers who didn’t read the directions closely ended up pouring the contents of the bottle into a nice glass and getting a less-than-pleasant mouthful of salted wine.

8. Funky Fries

In 2002, hoping to follow the success of Heinz’s new “kiddie” ketchup versions (in green and purple), Ore-Ida introduced Funky Fries: chocolate-flavored, cinnamon-flavored, and blue-colored French fries. An awful lot of money was sunk into the product, but after a year of marketing, consumers still found the idea funky—in the bad way. Funky Fries were pulled off the shelves in 2003, and images of blue fries with green ketchup were once again relegated to the world of Warhol-esque pop art.

9. Pepsi A.M.

Creating a super-caffeinated soda worked well for the makers of Red Bull, but not for the folks at Pepsi. With 25 percent more caffeine than a cup of Joe, PepsiCo introduced the cola-flavored product in 1989, only to discover that most people just couldn’t bring themselves to drink soda with their cornflakes. For those who wanted a Pepsi in the morning, regular Pepsi did just fine, thankyouverymuch. Pepsi A.M., like the coffee-flavored Pepsi Kona before it, was scrapped after just a few months.

10. Gerber Singles

At some point in time, almost every adult has tasted baby food and discovered that the stuff isn’t half bad. But that doesn’t mean people want to make a meal out of it. For some reason, Gerber had to learn that lesson the hard way. In 1974, the company released Gerber Singles, small servings of food meant for single adults, packaged in jars that were almost identical to those used for baby food. It didn’t take long for Gerber execs to figure out that most consumers, unless they were less than a year old, couldn’t get used to eating a pureed meal out of a jar—particularly one depressingly labeled “Singles.” Baby food for grown-ups was pulled from the marketplace shortly after its birth.

This article originally appeared in the March-April 2005 issue of mental_floss magazine.

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While sources differ on the roots of many sayings, others have a clear path to the days of sailing across the ocean. Here’s a look at some family-friendly phrases that came from the mouths of sailors.]]>
by Mark S. Longo

The Vikings, Columbus, the Pilgrims … they all arrived here by ship. So it stands to reason that some of the phrases we use today were born on the high seas. While sources differ on the roots of many sayings, others have a clear path to the days of sailing across the ocean. Here’s a look at 9 family-friendly phrases that likely came from the mouths of sailors.

1. Clean Bill of Health

The “Age of Sail” in the 18th and early 19th centuries was a glorious time in naval history marked by many epic battles on the high seas, but it was also a time of widespread disease. In order to receive permission to dock at a foreign port, ships were often required to show a bill of health—a document that stated the medical condition of their previous port of call, as well as that of everyone aboard. A “clean bill of health” certified that the crew and their previous port were free from the plague, cholera and other epidemics. Today, a person with a “clean bill of health” has passed a doctor’s physical or other medical examination.

2. In the Doldrums

During the Age of Sail, “The Doldrums” were stretches of ocean north and south of the equator that were infamous for their light winds. If a vessel was caught there, it could languish for days or even weeks waiting for the wind to pick up, which made for a very bored crew. Eventually, The Doldrums became so well known that the name was applied to any area with light winds. Today, someone who is “in the doldrums” is either listless or depressed.

3. Three Sheets to the Wind

Many people are surprised to learn that this expression for drunkenness was born on the high seas. “Sheet” is the nautical term for the rope that controls the tension on a square sail. If the sheets are loose on a three-masted ship, then the sails will flap uselessly in the wind, and the ship will drift out of control until the situation is corrected. Thus, the modern phrase “three sheets to the wind” has come to signify a person who is intoxicated to the point of being out of control.

4. Filibuster

The roots of the term “filibuster” can be traced to the pirates who prowled the shipping trade routes in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The Dutch word for pirate was vrijbuiter—a word that eventually led to the French term flibustier and the Spanish term filibustero. The British, however, pronounced it filibuster.

So how did the word for pirate became associated with obstructionist political tactics? It’s still a bit of a mystery, but some historians speculate that, since pirates were an incessant, obstructing nuisance, they effectively blocked trade in many areas, just as politicians try to block legislation today.

5. Chew the Fat

Before refrigeration, salted beef and pork were staple foods aboard sailing vessels because they could be stored for long periods without spoiling. However, they were also tough and extremely difficult to eat. It often took a great deal of chewing just to soften up the meat and make it edible, which took a lot of time. So, in the spirit of multi-tasking, men would gather to discuss the day’s events while they chewed their fatty, salt-cured meat. According to this theory, whenever people get together to gossip or chat, we say that they are “chewing the fat.”

6. Slush Fund

Most people think this term originated in the smoke-filled boardrooms of corporate America. Surprisingly, however, it can be traced back to some clever ship cooks who saved the slushy mix of fat and grease that was left over after every meal.

The slush would be stowed away in a secret hiding place until the ship returned to port. The cooks would then sell the fat to candle makers and other merchants, earning themselves a tidy sum in the process. Thus, the term “slush fund” refers to an illicit cash reserve.

7. By and Large

A sailing vessel was considered seaworthy if it could sail both “by” (into the wind) and “large” (with the wind). This term has come to mean “generally speaking” in modern parlance.

8. Groggy

Along with salted beef and water, the British Royal Navy issued sailors a daily ration of rum to keep them happy during long months at sea. And, not surprisingly, the men would often save up several days’ worth of their rations before consuming it in one long binge, which frequently resulted in insubordination. In 1740, hoping to reduce the number of alcohol-fueled discipline problems, British Admiral Edward Vernon ordered all vessels to dilute their daily rum ration with water. Vernon was known as “Old Grog” because he always wore a coat made out of grogram, a coarse material that was stiffened with gum. Consequently, the diluted rum drink that he created became known as grog, and sailors who drank too much of it were said to feel “groggy.” Today, people who are overly tired, lightheaded or generally inebriated are still referred to as groggy.

9. Under the Weather

Keeping watch onboard sailing ships was a boring and tedious job, but the worst watch station was on the “weather” (windward) side of the bow. The sailor who was assigned to this station was subject to the constant pitching and rolling of the ship. By the end of his watch, he would be soaked from the waves crashing over the bow. A sailor who was assigned to this unpleasant duty was said to be “under the weather.” Sometimes, these men fell ill and died as a result of the assignment, which is why today “under the weather” is used to refer to someone suffering from an illness. A related theory claims that ill sailors were sent below deck (or “under the weather”) if they were feeling sick.

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While today’s presidential slogans are mostly indistinguishable combinations of the words “America,” “leader,” and “change,” that certainly wasn’t always the case. Here are 10 campaign slogans worth remembering.]]> By Brendan Spiegel

While today’s presidential slogans are mostly indistinguishable combinations of the words “America,” “leader,” and “change,” that certainly wasn’t always the case. Here are 10 campaign slogans worth remembering.

1. Voters didn’t know much about Democrat Franklin Pierce when he headed into the 1852 election, so Pierce decided to cast himself as the rightful heir to popular ex-president James K. Polk. Pierce’s pun of a slogan? “We Polked You in ’44, We Shall Pierce You in ’52.” It may sound oddly threatening now, but it did the trick. Pierce beat his Whig opponent in a landslide.

2. Modern-day politicians make some pretty outlandish campaign pledges, but giving away government property has to take the cake. That’s what Abraham Lincoln did in 1860 when he ran for the White House under the slogan “Vote Yourself a Farm”—a bold promise to give settlers free land throughout the West. To his credit, however, Lincoln followed through and signed the Homestead Act in 1862.

3. Modern politicians didn’t invent you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us politics. Way back in 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant rode his Civil War victories into the White House with the slogan “Vote as You Shot”—a direct order to Union voters to toe the Republican line.

4. The award for quickest about-face on a campaign slogan goes to Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned for re-election in 1916 with the motto “He Kept Us Out of War.” Americans voted with him in an effort to keep the peace, but five months later, Wilson led the country into World War I.

5. Prohibition was all the rage in 1920, much to the dismay of Democratic nominee James M. Cox, who believed making alcohol illegal only benefited criminals and bootleggers. His opponent, Warren G. Harding, attacked Cox for this stance and ridiculed him with the slogan “Cox and Cocktails.” Ironically, after Harding won the presidency in a landslide, he was well-known to enjoy stiff drinks in the comfort of the White House.

6. Kansas Governor Alfred Landon emphasized his heartland roots during the 1936 election by adorning his campaign paraphernalia with bright yellow sunflowers. In response, opponent Franklin Roosevelt and his Democratic supporters went right for the kill, pointing out that “Sunflowers Die in November.” They were right; Landon won just two states. Kansas wasn’t one of them.

7. When F.D.R. sought an unprecedented third term during the 1940 presidential race, it incited a backlash among those who felt it was time to move on. His Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie, got right to the point, stamping his campaign buttons with the slogan “Roosevelt for Ex-President.”

8 & 9. Republican nominee Barry Goldwater inspired a legion of impassioned conservatives in 1964 with his slogan “In Your Heart, You Know He’s Right.” But Lyndon Johnson’s Democratic campaign came up with a response that more effectively branded Goldwater as a right-wing extremist: “In Your Guts, You Know He’s Nuts.”

10. After unexpectedly winning the 1976 Democratic primary, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter sought to stress his humble roots as a peanut farmer and also prove that he was a candidate to take seriously. He did both with his slogan, “Not Just Peanuts.”

This article originally appeared in the Wildest Rides to the White House issue of mental_floss magazine (Sept-Oct 2008).

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There are countless Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts backpacking through forests in 155 countries around the world. But while those iconic khaki uniforms are associated with childhood adventure, scouting was actually forged in the heat of battle by a desperate British military officer.]]> By Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy

There are countless Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts backpacking through forests in 155 countries around the world. But while those iconic khaki uniforms are associated with childhood adventure, scouting was actually forged in the heat of battle by a desperate British military officer.

Be Prepared

During the summer of 1899, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell of the British army found himself in a pickle. He’d been put in charge of making sure the British Empire retained her settlements in South Africa. Problem was, the nearby Dutch colonists—the Boers—were gearing up to seize them, and there were a lot more Boers than Englishmen in the area. To make matters worse, British government officials refused to send Baden-Powell more troops or supplies. They thought it would be best not to provoke the Boers by appearing ready for war.

Of course, Baden-Powell knew to always be prepared. He planned in secret for the imminent invasion, recruiting and gathering his own men and supplies. Rather than spread his troops far and wide, the colonel consolidated his limited forces in the inland town of Mafeking. He thought if he could hold onto the town long enough, he would be able to keep Boer troops away from the coast, where British reinforcements would eventually land.

When the Second Boer War erupted in October, the colonel and his 500 troops found themselves surrounded by 8,000 Boer soldiers. With little else in his arsenal, Baden-Powell engaged in the art of deception. If he could make the Boers believe that Mafeking was better defended than it really was, he figured he could keep them at bay.

And so the theatrics began. The 42-year-old colonel ordered his troops to act as though they were planting minefields, even though they had no mines. He ordered them to create gun turrets, even though they had neither the manpower nor the artillery to arm them. And to make the perimeter appear well guarded, Baden-Powell made his men pretend to avoid barbed wire along the edge of town. He even had them parade around at night with a fake searchlight made from a lamp and a biscuit tin.

While many of Baden-Powell’s strategies were based in make-believe, at least one of his tactics was rooted in reality.

He called upon a troop of 12- to 15-year-old boys from the town known as the Mafeking Cadet Corps. He then used this tiny army to relay messages, help out in the hospital, and act as scouts and guards.

Decked out in khaki uniforms and wide-brim hats, the young cadets traveled around town on donkeys. (Later, when food became scarce during the siege, the donkeys were eaten, and the boys switched to bicycles.) Their duties kept the boys busy and gave them a sense of purpose. More importantly, the Cadet Corps left the outnumbered British soldiers free to fight, effectively quadrupling their manpower.

Life in the Woods

What gave Baden-Powell the idea to use adolescent boys in battle? Well, he had a peculiar childhood. The son of a natural-history professor, Robert Baden-Powell grew up in a nature-loving family. When his father died in 1860, Robert was just 3 years old. His newly widowed mother was determined to make men of her five sons, so she pushed them to vigorously explore the outdoors. In fact, she once challenged her boys to travel on their own from their house in London to a rented cottage in Wales. After the brothers paddled a boat up the Thames by themselves, they hiked the remaining distance. Several days later, they arrived safely at the cottage, where their mother was waiting for them.

During their camping and boating adventures, the boys took as little with them as possible. They slept under hedges and haystacks, and they caught and cooked their own meals. In the end, the exercise not only taught them the skills to survive in the wild, but it also fostered a sense of independence and resolve. Baden-Powell knew that under the right circumstances, boys could be relied upon. And during the Siege of Mafeking, they proved invaluable.

The Greatest War Novel Ever Written (To Inspire Young Boys)

The siege lasted 217 days, and through it all, Baden-Powell managed the town’s defenses, explored enemy territory, made cannons from scrap metal, drew sketches of his surroundings, taught the cadets woodwork and camping, and organized cricket matches on Sundays. (He achieved so much that many of his troops believed he didn’t sleep.) Most impressively, he also found time to edit the pages of his book, Aids to Scouting—a guide to surviving in the wilderness that would later become the first manual for the Boy Scouts.

As the British press reported daily on the marathon siege in Mafeking, Baden-Powell became a household name. When British reinforcements finally arrived and freed the town in May 1900, Baden-Powell was praised as a hero. He was named the youngest major-general in the army, and 38 of his boy cadets were awarded medals from Queen Victoria. In Britain, the victory celebrations were so great that a new word entered the language to describe the parties—”mafficking.” Today, the term is still used in England to mean rejoicing.

Although Baden-Powell hadn’t intended Aids to Scouting for young boys, his newfound fame meant it quickly appeared on children’s nightstands across Great Britain. The colonel had long been concerned that new military recruits were clueless about basic outdoor survival techniques. He wrote the wilderness guide for them, but after witnessing the bravery of the Mafeking Cadet Corps, Baden-Powell recognized how much the book could mean to young people, too.

In 1908, Baden-Powell wrote a second version of Aids to Scouting just for children called Scouting for Boys. He had tested his ideas by leading a group of 22 boys on an expedition to Brownsea Island off the coast of England, where he taught them the skills of the outdoors. (This is known as the first official Boy Scout meeting.) Not surprisingly, the book became an instant best-seller, and Boy Scout troops spontaneously appeared all over Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada. In 1910, the first Girl Scouts joined the movement, and Baden-Powell quit the military to devote himself to scouting full-time. Under his care, more than 1 million scouts joined organizations in 32 countries in less than 12 years. Today, there are 30 million members worldwide, and the movement that began as a necessity of war shows no sign of slowing down.

This article originally appeared in mental_floss magazine. If you’re in a subscribing mood, head on over to our subscription page.

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The science of copying nature, a field known as biomimetics, is a billion-dollar industry. Here are some of our favorite technologies that came in from the wild.]]> By David Goldenberg and Eric Vance

People have been lifting ideas from Mother Nature for decades. Velcro was inspired by the hooked barbs of thistle, and the first highway reflectors were made to mimic cat eyes. But today, the science of copying nature, a field known as biomimetics, is a billion-dollar industry. Here are some of our favorite technologies that came in from the wild.

1. Sharkskin—The Latest Craze in Catheters

Hospitals are constantly worried about germs. No matter how often doctors and nurses wash their hands, they inadvertently spread bacteria and viruses from one patient to the next. In fact, as many as 100,000 Americans die each year from infections they pick up in hospitals. Sharks, however, have managed to stay squeaky clean for more than 100 million years. And now, thanks to them, infections may go the way of the dinosaur.

Unlike other large marine creatures, sharks don’t collect slime, algae, or barnacles on their bodies. That phenomenon intrigued engineer Tony Brennan, who was trying to design a better barnacle-preventative coating for Navy ships when he learned about it in 2003. Investigating the skin further, he discovered that a shark’s entire body is covered in miniature, bumpy scales, like a carpet of tiny teeth. Algae and barnacles can’t grasp hold, and for that matter, neither can troublesome bacteria such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Brennan’s research inspired a company called Sharklet, which began exploring how to use the sharkshin concept to make a coating that repels germs. Today, the firm produces a sharkskin-inspired plastic wrap that’s currently being tested on hospital surfaces that get touched the most (light switches, monitors, handles). So far, it seems to be successfully fending off germs. The company already has even bigger plans; Sharklet’s next project is to create a plastic wrap that covers another common source of infections—the catheter.

2. Holy Bat Cane!

It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: A brain expert, a bat biologist, and an engineer walk into a cafeteria. But that’s exactly what happened when a casual meeting of the minds at England’s Leeds University led to the invention of the Ultracane, a walking stick for the blind that vibrates as it approaches objects.

The cane works using echolocation, the same sensory system that bats use to map out their environments. It lets off 60,000 ultrasonic pulses per second and then listens for them to bounce back. When some return faster than others, that indicates a nearby object, which causes the cane’s handle to vibrate. Using this technique, the cane not only “sees” objects on the ground, such as trash cans and fire hydrants, but also senses things above, such as low-hanging signs and tree branches. And because the cane’s output and feedback are silent, people using it can still hear everything going on around them. Although the Ultracane hasn’t experienced ultra-stellar sales, several companies in the United States and New Zealand are currently trying to figure out how to market similar gadgets using the same bat-inspired technology.

3. Trains Get a Nose Job for the Birds

When the first Japanese Shinkansen Bullet Train was built in 1964, it could zip along at 120 mph. But going that fast had an annoying side effect. Whenever the train exited a tunnel, there was a loud boom, and the passengers would complain of a vague feeling that the train was squeezing together.

That’s when engineer and bird enthusiast Eiji Nakatsu stepped in. He discovered that the train was pushing air in front of it, forming a wall of wind. When this wall crashed against the air outside the tunnel, the collision created a loud sound and placed an immense amount of pressure on the train. In analyzing the problem, Nakatsu reasoned that the train needed to slice through the tunnel like an Olympic diver slicing through the water. For inspiration, he turned to a diver bird, the kingfisher. Living on branches high above lakes and rivers, kingfishers plunge into the water below to catch fish. Their bills, which are shaped like knives, cut through the air and barely make a ripple when they penetrate the water.

Nakatsu experimented with different shapes for the front of the train, but he discovered that the best, by far, was nearly identical to the kingfisher’s bill. Nowadays, Japan’s high-speed trains have long, beak-like noses that help them exit quietly out of tunnels. In fact, the refitted trains are 10 percent faster and 15 percent more fuel-efficient than their predecessors.

4. The Secret Power of Flippers

One scientist thinks he’s found part of the solution to our energy crisis deep in the ocean. Frank Fish, a fluid dynamics expert and marine biologist at Pennsylvania’s West Chester University, noticed something that seemed impossible about the flippers of humpback whales. Humpbacks have softball-size bumps on the forward edge of their limbs, which cut through the water and allow whales to glide through the ocean with great ease. But according to the rules of hydrodynamics, these bumps should put drag on the flippers, ruining the way they work.

Professor Fish decided to investigate. He put a 12-foot model of a flipper in a wind tunnel and witnessed it defy our understanding of physics.

The bumps, called tubercles, made the flipper even more aerodynamic. It turns out that they were positioned in such a way that they actually broke the air passing over the flipper into pieces, like the bristles of a brush running through hair. Fish’s discovery, now called the “tubercle effect,” not only applies to fins and flippers in the water, but also to wings and fan blades in the air.

Based on his research, Fish designed bumpy-edge blades for fans, which cut through air about 20 percent more efficiently than standard ones. He launched a company called Whalepower to manufacture them and will soon begin licensing its energy-efficient technology to improve fans in industrial plants and office buildings around the world. But Fish’s big fish is wind energy. He believes that adding just a few bumps to the blades of wind turbines will revolutionize the industry, making wind more valuable than ever.

5. What Would Robotic Jesus Christ Lizard Do?

There’s a reason the basilisk lizard is often referred to as the Jesus Christ lizard: It walks on water. More accurately, it runs. Many insects perform a similar trick, but they do it by being light enough not to break the surface tension of the water. The much larger basilisk lizard stays afloat by bicycling its feet at just the right angle so that its body rises out of the water and rushes forward.

In 2003, Carnegie Mellon robotics professor Metin Sitti was teaching an undergraduate robotics class that focused on studying the mechanics present in the natural world. When he used the lizard as an example of strange biomechanics, he was suddenly inspired to see if he could build a robot to perform the same trick.

It wasn’t easy. Not only would the motors have to be extremely light, but the legs would have to touch down on the water perfectly each time, over and over again. After months of work, Sitti and his students were able to create the first robot that could walk on water.

Sitti’s design needs some work, though. The mechanical miracle still rolls over and sinks occasionally. But once he irons out the kinks, there could be a bright future ahead for a machine that runs on land and sea. It could be used to monitor the quality of water in reservoirs or even help rescue people during floods.

6. Puff the Magic Sea Sponge

The orange puffball sponge isn’t much to look at; it’s basically a Nerf ball resting on the ocean floor. It has no appendages, no organs, no digestive system, and no circulatory system. It just sits all day, filtering water. And yet, this unassuming creature might be the catalyst for the next technological revolution.

The “skeleton” of the puffball sponge is a series of calcium and silicon lattices. Actually, it’s similar to the material we use to make solar panels, microchips, and batteries—except that when humans make them, we use tons of energy and all manner of toxic chemicals. Sponges do it better. They simply release special enzymes into the water that pull out the calcium and silicon and then arrange the chemicals into precise shapes.

Daniel Morse, a professor of biotechnology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, studied the sponge’s enzyme technique and successfully copied it in 2006. He’s already made a number of electrodes using clean, efficient sponge technology. And now, several companies are forming a multimillion-dollar alliance to commercialize similar products. In a few years, when solar panels are suddenly on every rooftop in America and microchips are sold for a pittance, don’t forget to thank the little orange puffballs that started it all.

7. Wasps—They Know the Drill

Don’t be scared of the two giant, whip-like needles on the end of a horntail wasp. They’re not stingers; they’re drill bits. Horntails use these needles (which can be longer than their entire bodies!) to drill into trees, where they deposit their young.

For years, biologists couldn’t understand how the horntail drill worked. Unlike traditional drills, which require additional force (think of a construction worker bearing down on a jackhammer), the horntail can drill from any angle with little effort and little body weight. After years of studying the tiny insects, scientists finally figured out that the two needles inch their way into wood, pushing off and reinforcing each other like a zipper.

Astronomers at the University of Bath in England think the wasp’s drill will come in handy in space. Scientists have long known that in order to find life on Mars, they might have to dig for it. But without much gravity, they weren’t sure how they’d find the pressure to drill down on the planet’s hard surface. Inspired by the insects, researchers have designed a saw with extra blades at the end that push against each other like the needles of the wasp. Theoretically, the device could even work on the surface of a meteor, where there’s no gravity at all.

8. Consider the Lobster Eye

There’s a reason X-ray machines are large and clunky. Unlike visible light, X-rays don’t like to bend, so they’re difficult to manipulate. The only way we can scan bags at airports and people at the doctor’s office is by bombarding the subjects with a torrent of radiation all at once—which requires a huge device.

But lobsters, living in murky water 300 feet below the surface of the ocean, have “X-ray vision” far better than any of our machines. Unlike the human eye, which views refracted images that have to be interpreted by the brain, lobsters see direct reflections that can be focused to a single point, where they are gathered together to form an image. Scientists have figured out how to copy this trick to make new X-ray machines.

The Lobster Eye X-ray Imaging Device (LEXID) is a handheld “flashlight” that can see through 3-inch-thick steel walls.

The device shoots a small stream of low-power X-rays through an object, and a few come bouncing back off whatever is on the other side. Just as in the lobster eye, the returning signals are funneled through tiny tubes to create an image. The Department of Homeland Security has already invested $1 million in LEXID designs, which it hopes will be useful in finding contraband.

9. Playing Dead, Saving Lives

When the going gets tough, the tough play dead. That’s the motto of two of nature’s most durable creatures—the resurrection plant and the water bear. Together, their amazing biochemical tricks may show scientists how to save millions of lives in the developing world.

Resurrection plants refer to a group of desert mosses that shrivel up during dry spells and appear dead for years, or even decades. But once it rains, the plants become lush and green again, as if nothing happened. The water bear has a similar trick for playing dead. The microscopic animal can essentially shut down and, during that time, endure some of the most brutal environments known to man. It can survive temperatures near absolute zero and above 300˚F, go a decade without water, withstand 1,000 times more radiation than any other animal on Earth, and even stay alive in the vacuum of space. Under normal circumstances, the water bear looks like a sleeping bag with chubby legs, but when it encounters extreme conditions, the bag shrivels up. If conditions go back to normal, the little fellow only needs a little water to become itself again.

The secret to the survival of both organisms is intense hibernation. They replace all of the water in their bodies with a sugar that hardens into glass. The result is a state of suspended animation. And while the process won’t work to preserve people (replacing the water in our blood with sugar would kill us), it does work to preserve vaccines.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million children die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough. Because vaccines hold living materials that die quickly in tropical heat, transporting them safely to those in need can be difficult. That’s why a British company has taken a page from water bears and resurrection plants. They’ve created a sugar preservative that hardens the living material inside vaccines into microscopic glass beads, allowing the vaccines to last for more than a week in sweltering climates.

10. Picking Up the Bill

The bill of the toucan is so large and thick that it should weigh the bird down. But as any Froot Loops aficionado can tell you, Toucan Sam gets around. That’s because his bill is a marvel of engineering. It’s hard enough to chew through the toughest fruit shells and sturdy enough to be a weapon against other birds, and yet, the toucan bill is only as dense as a Styrofoam cup.

Marc Meyers, a professor of engineering at the University of California at San Diego, has started to understand how the bill can be so light. At first glance, it appears to be foam surrounded by a hard shell, kind of like a bike helmet. But Meyers discovered that the foam is actually a complicated network of tiny scaffolds and thin membranes. The scaffolds themselves are made of heavy bone, but they are spaced apart in such a way that the entire bill is only one-tenth the density of water. Meyers thinks that by copying the toucan bill, we can create car panels that are stronger, lighter, and safer. Toucan Sam was right; today we’re all following his nose.

This article originally appeared in mental_floss magazine.

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Songwriters have found inspiration in all sorts of places, from transvestites to team tennis titans. Maggie Koerth-Baker has read between the liner notes to find out for whom 8 famous songs were written.]]>
This article originally appeared in a 2006 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Songwriters have found inspiration in all sorts of places, from transvestites to team tennis titans. Maggie Koerth-Baker has read between the liner notes to find out for whom 8 famous songs were written.

1. “Philadelphia Freedom”

Written by: Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Written for: Billie Jean King, as a thank-you for a tracksuit she gave Elton. And what a tracksuit it must have been! The 1975 song remains one of the most popular disco hits ever, leaving thousands of Hustle enthusiasts wondering just what Billie Jean King had to do with Philadelphia, anyway.

Turns out, the song was a reference to King’s pro tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. Prior to 1968, tennis players were all considered “amateurs” and weren’t eligible to receive prize money. So, if you didn’t have the wealth to support yourself, you couldn’t play. Billie Jean King fought against those constraints, ultimately founding Professional World Team Tennis in 1974 and turning tennis into a paid league sport.

2. “Lola”

Written by: The Kinks’ Ray Davies

Written for: A transvestite. But the question is, which one? According to Rolling Stone, “Lola” was inspired by Candy Darling, a member of Andy Warhol’s entourage, whom Ray Davies briefly (and cluelessly) dated. If that’s the case, then “Lola” is just another notch on Darling’s song belt—she’s also referred to in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.” (”Candy came from out on the Island/ In the backroom she was everybody’s darlin’.”)

But, in the Kinks’ official biography, Davies tells a different story. He says “Lola” was written after the band’s manager spent a very drunken night dancing with a woman whose five o’clock shadow was apparently obvious to everyone but him.

3. “867-5309/Jenny”

Written by: Jim Keller (of Tommy Tutone) and Alex Call

Written for: Unknown, as the songwriters apparently make up a different story about its inspiration every time they’re asked. While the woman continues to remain a mystery, however, the phone number is all too real. In fact, it’s been wreaking havoc ever since 1982the passage of time hasn’t quelled of the number of crank calls. In 1999, Brown University freshman roommates Nina Clemente and Jahanaz Mirza found that out the hard way, when the school adopted an 867 exchange number for its on-campus phone system. Immediately, the girls’ innocuous Room No. 5309 became a magnet for every drunk college kid with a 1980s fetish.

Other unfortunate phone customers have fought back with creative and profitable solutions, like the holder of 212-867-5309, who put his phone number up for auction on eBay in 2004. Bids approached $100,000 before eBay pulled the item at the request of Verizon, the number’s actual owner.

4. “Für Elise”

Written by: Ludwig van Beethoven

Written for: Some girl probably not named Elise. In fact, as far as most historians can tell, Beethoven didn’t even know an Elise. Instead, the song was originally titled “Bagatelle in A minor” based on some handwritten notation a Beethoven researcher claimed to have seen on a now-lost copy of the sheet music.

Further complicating things, Beethoven had hideous handwriting—to the point that some scholars speculate the song was actually written “for Therese,” as in Therese Malfatti, one of several women who turned down a marriage proposal from the notoriously lovesick maestro.

5. “Oh, Carol”

Written by: Neil Sedaka

Written for: Carole King, naturally. Sedaka and King actually dated briefly in high school — a romance Sedaka was able to successfully milk with “Oh, Carol,” a then top-10 (if now somewhat forgettable) 1959 pop song.

However, the real success of “Oh, Carol” came a few months later, when it inspired King to write a rebuttal entitled “Oh, Neil.” At the time, King and her husband, Gerry Goffin, were fledgling songwriters in need of a hit tune. “Oh, Neil” wasn’t that, but it did pay off. After Sedaka gave a tape of the song to his boss, King and Goffin landed jobs at the legendary Brill Building pop music factory, where the duo went on to write chart-toppers like “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” and “The Loco-Motion.”

6. “It Ain’t Me, Babe”

Written by: Bob Dylan

Written for: Joan Baez, though it clearly wasn’t the nicest gift Dylan could have given her. The two met in 1961, when Baez was an up-and-coming folk singer and Dylan was a nobody from Minnesota. Desperate to make his break in the music biz, Dylan worked like crazy to get Baez’s attention. He eventually ended up going on tour with her, which is how he first became famous, and also how the two began dating. For a while, they seemed like the golden couple, but things soon went downhill.

During a European concert tour together in early 1965, they had a huge fight and parted ways. That May, Dylan was holed up in a hotel after being hospitalized with a virus, and Baez, hoping to remain friends, decided to bring him flowers. Sadly, that’s how she found out that her ex was already dating someone else. That someone else was Sara Lownds, whom Dylan married a mere six months later.

7. “Our House”

Written by: Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Written for: Joni Mitchell. In December 1968, Nash and Mitchell moved into a cozy little house in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles. Though commonly left out of the hippy pantheon, Laurel Canyon was sort of a commune-home away from commune-home for San Francisco society — not just CSN&Y, but also Jim Morrison, the Eagles, Frank Zappa, and more.

“Our House” was directly inspired by a lazy Sunday in the Nash/Mitchell household. The couple went out to brunch, hit an antiques store, and then returned to find the house just a bit chilly, at which point Nash literally “lit a fire,” while Mitchell “placed the flowers in the vase that she bought that day.” No, really. The whole tableau seemed so ridiculously domestic to Nash that he immediately sat down and spent the rest of the day writing about it.

8. “Dear Mama”

Written by: Tupac Shakur

Written for: Afeni Shakur, who is, obviously, Tupac’s mama. A fascinating character in her own right, Afeni Shakur was born Alice Fay Williams, but changed her name while working with the Black Panthers in the 1960s. In fact, Tupac (named after the Peruvian revolutionary leader Tupac Amaru II) was born in 1971—just a month after Afeni was acquitted of bombing conspiracy charges. (She had spent most of her pregnancy behind bars.) As the song implies, she and Tupac didn’t always get along, particularly during his adolescence, when Afeni was addicted to crack. But, by the time of Tupac’s death in 1996, she was clean and the two had patched things up long enough for Tupac to write that she “was appreciated.” Today, Afeni runs a charity in her son’s name and is (somewhat controversially) responsible for Tupac’s multiple posthumous CD releases.

This article was written by Maggie Koerth-Baker and originally appeared in mental_floss magazine.

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