Question: Crime-history buffs, can you recount a few of the "fractured" forensics behind the still unsolved Jack the Ripper serial killer case of 1888?
Answer: Start with the utterly botched investigation. The five mutilated victims, found within a half-mile radius, were all "ladies of the night," and lack of funding and training for support staff led to evidence being treated unscientifically, says E.J. Wagner in "The Science of Sherlock Holmes."
For example, the corpse of Mary Ann Nichols — usually considered the first victim — was only superficially examined by a physician before mortuary workers (actually inmates from a workhouse) stripped the body. They had made no notes, labeled no evidence, and had only vague recollections afterward. Said the coroner, "It appears the mortuary-keeper is subject to fits, and neither his memory nor statements are reliable."
Then there were the highly touted bloodhounds brought to London to be put on the killer's trail. At one point, the Times of London reported that somehow the dogs had disappeared. Oddly, while the public believed them to be roaming free, the Ripper murders stopped, and only after it was announced the dogs were back in their kennel did the murders resume.
And what about "Jack"? Not far from the murder scene and some 20 years earlier, a young Constance Kent — whose mother had a history of mental illness — had confessed to the brutal stabbing death of her half-brother. Released from prison at age 41, she possessed some medical skill as a midwife and was sporadically attracted to religion. There are no available facts as to where she went or how she lived, says Wagner. Still, "as it was just three years before the Ripper murders and the Ripper was believed to be a knife wielder with some medical knowledge, it is tempting to speculate about a connection. ... "
Question:A head for numbers is one thing, but if you're in Papua New Guinea speaking the endangered language of Kobon, what's the significance of this sequence of body parts: little finger, ring finger, middle finger, forefinger, thumb, wrist, forearm, inside elbow, bicep, shoulder?
Answer: Words for numbers in Kobon have to do with the human anatomy, so listed above are the numbers 1 to 10, says linguist K. David Harrison in "When Languages Die" ("New Scientist" magazine). To count higher than 10, you count the collarbone and the hollow at the base of the throat and then right down the other side all the way to 23. You can count to 46 by counting back the other way and even higher by starting over and doing it all again, making 61 "hand turn around second time go back biceps other side."
Question:What's the most complex everyday human behavior?
Answer: Try talking, says University of Washington speech and hearing scientist Robert M. Miller. During conversation there are about 100 muscles working at any given time to produce speech, and for each of these there are about 100 nerve endings transmitting impulses to muscle fibers.
Combine this with the fact that we produce approximately 14 sounds per second when talking. The product — 100 x 100 x 14 — suggests there are some 140,000 neuromuscular (nerve-to-muscle) events occurring during every second of conversational speech. "And this does not even begin to account for the additional brain activities necessary to develop a thought, select words to express the thought, sequence the words, program the movements, and initiate the act of speaking."
Leaves us speechless!
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com, coauthors of "Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So- Everyday) Questions," from Pi Press.