It’s probably not a question you’ve asked yourself much, although at this time of the year, it might just be on a science professor’s mind The CVC’s No Santa! site discusses (a la Roger Highfield) Santa Science. Intriguingly, and presumably not without tongue firmly in cheek, there’s a dubiously significant figure cited in the text [...]

According to US researchers, moonshine can contain potentially hazardous levels of lead, up to 599 parts per billion apparently… 599? What are they on about? That’s an accuracy of 0.000001% isn’t it. Surely, the ill effects of drinking this stuff whether it contains 599 or 600 ppb of Pb is nothing compared with the ill [...]

Dear Ms BBC Crisis aside, benzene is not a “toxin”, it is toxic yes, but the two things are not synonymous. Thank you D Bradley The Pedant Council of GB PS I assume you’re a Ms as you’re an “Aunty”

I really oughtn’t to give him the free publicity but an article by Ian Wylie in The Guardian (Should I bother to get a flu vaccination?, October 29, 2005) suggests in its opening sentence that Tamiflu is a vaccine. I quote: “It’s the must-have item for this Christmas: Tamiflu, the bird flu vaccination proving such [...]