LIFE ON THE EDGE.

I've just submitted EDGE to my editor Marc Gascoigne. Yes, it's 2 a.m., but never mind. It means that despite being in the UK, I got to learn the Ig Nobel results only an hour after the award ceremony in Harvard.

The Public Health prize has to be my favourite -- the bra that doubles as two gas masks. You might associate sweaty underwear with offensive biochem weaponry; nice to know there's a defence, too.

In last year's awards, the most interesting was for the research that showed high-priced placebos are more efficacious than cheaper ones. That reminds me of a hugely important result -- a few years old now -- to do with what I think of as triple blind testing...

I'll post on that when I've woken up from my post-submission sleep...