Does your face fit?

DOES your face properly fit your name? Miami University scientists have discovered that some people’s features match their monikers so well that it makes them instantly more memorable.

They asked large groups of undergraduates to match men’s faces to a list of common names. The results show, for example, that when people hear the name Bob they picture a large, round face, but when they hear the names Tim or Andy they imagine someone far thinner.

Robin Thomas, a professor of psychology, says that not only is it easier to remember a name if the owner’s face fits it, but people have a much tougher time recalling face-name links if they go against their expectations.

The report, to be published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, says that the most evocative men’s names are Bob, Bill, Brian and Jason. We seem to carry archetypal pictures in our heads for how they should look. But why?

Thomas says that one possible answer is that the sound of the name strongly influences our mental picture. So, for example, Bob is a round-sounding name and many of the study participants produced a relatively round face when asked to draw a face to match the name.

“People choose names for their babies not knowing how they will look later in life, but it seems that society has an idea of what people’s names might be merely by looking at them,” says Thomas.

There’s no escaping coughs and sneezes

KEEPING at arm’s length from someone’s cough or sneeze ain’t gonna save you: those viruses fly farther and wider than we ever thought, a new Australian study reveals.

In a terrible blow for germophobes, Queensland University of Technology scientists have built a machine to measure the distance a cough or sneeze droplet travels in the air.

And the bad news is that those droplets often don’t fall to the ground; they dry in mid-air, remain infectious and then range far and wide.

Professor Lidia Morawska, the lead researcher, says that her study, funded by the Australian Research Council, was inspired by an outbreak of Sars in Hong Kong where more than 300 people were infected in a few hours. “We wanted to know how this virus was able to travel from building to building in such a short time.”

Morawska hopes that her research will help architects to create environments that prevent airborne virus infection. “Understanding the way viruses spread from human breath means that we can design better spaces, ventilation systems and filters.”

But in the meantime, let’s bring back polite hanky use: “The current belief that if you are at arm’s length from someone, you’re safe from any viruses they carry, is wrong,” says Morawska.

Smear delight

ANOTHER excellent reason for women to get regular smear tests: they seem to help to kill the virus that causes cervical cancer. A study of 80 women by Cape Town University says that pap smear tests spark an immune-system response that in turn may attack the human papillomavirus (HPV). The more smears a woman has had, the lower their rate of HPV infection, says the study in the Journal of Inflammation.

Smokeless zoned

A SMOKELESS, nontoxic way to inhale cannabis has been invented by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco. Their vaporising device heats cannabis resin to about 190C, just short of the point of combustion but hot enough to produce fumes of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the active cannabis ingredient.

Tests on 18 volunteers found that the method “gives patients the same effects, but without the toxic products in smoke”. Health-conscious hippies need not cheer, though: it’s aimed solely at patients with chronic pain.

9-5 sexaholics

MODERN life is swirling us down a vicious vortex where we work too much because we don’t have enough sex – and then we don’t have sex because we’re working too much, says a German psychologist.

Ragnar Beer, of Gottingen University, surveyed 32,000 men and women and reports that the less sex you have, the more work you seek. He says that people who are sexually deprived often have to find outlets for their frustrations, frequently by taking on more work commitments.

Beer’s team found that a third of his interviewees who have sex once a week take on extra work to compensate. The problem is that the extra work increasingly consumes time and energy that could be employed for sexual purposes, to the point where couples no longer make love at all.

Left, left, left, left

IF PRINCE Harry had gone to Iraq, he might have returned as the sort of poetry-writing sensitive type his father so admires. A new Israeli study says that combat soldiers become less right-wing and adopt more dovelike political views during their army service. “It’s the opposite of what might be expected,” says Colonel Dr Zvika Barkai, who performed the study for Haifa University. Nightclub bouncers and paparazzi might have welcomed the new Harry, too.

Times recommends

• McDonald’s: the world’s local restaurant
• Help me to be a mum: a foyer to fulfilment
• A life online: God likes a laugh