“They’re professionals, and here comes this army of nerds bashing down the doors.”
James Frew of the University of California, Santa Barbara, on the reaction of US coastguards to friends and colleagues of Microsoft researcher Jim Gray, who went missing on a sailing trip on 28 January, using their computer skills to help find him (The New York Times, 3 February)
“More female partners leads to fatigue in males and smaller sperm packages. Unfortunately, the female butterflies know. This makes them more rampant.”
Advertisement
Sylvain Charlat of University College London on how the sexual behaviour of Hypolimnas bolina butterflies changes when male partners become scarce (The Times, London, 6 February)
“If you were just going to talk to someone, I don’t know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air gun and pepper spray.”
Barbara Jones of the Orlando police department on the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak on suspicion of attempting to kidnap a woman she believed was a rival for the affections of space shuttle pilot William Oefelein (Associated Press, 6 February)
“These conditions are an ideological attack on the principles of freedom of academic research.”
Angus McFarland, student council president at the University of Sydney, Australia, on the university’s promise not to conduct stem cell research on land bought from a Catholic college (The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February)
“Oh my gosh, this is a urine extraction lab.”
Becky Howell, a police officer in Wright county, Minnesota, on the discovery that methamphetamine addicts are recycling the drug from their urine (CBS News, 2 February)
