The ability to laugh at a good joke has a lot to do with your brain's frontal
lobe. If you have damage there, punch lines may whiz right by you. But
the slapstick humor of the Three Stooges could leave you in stitches,
according to new research.
     In a study of 42 people, half of whom had a brain injury caused by a
stroke, tumor or surgery, those with damage to the right frontal lobe had
more trouble appreciating written or spoken jokes than people with no
brain injury or those with injuries elsewhere in the brain.
     Those with right frontal damage chose the wrong punch lines to
written jokes. Funny cartoons or spoken jokes also didn't get a rise out
of them. But those same people liked slapstick humor.
     The study by University of Toronto psychology graduate student
Prathiba Shammi appears in the April issue of the international journal
Brain. It suggests that the frontal lobe of the brain may play a major role
in appreciating humor.
     Here's a joke similar to one used in the study:
     A teenager is being interviewed for a summer job. The boss says,
"You'll get $50 a week to start off. Then after a month you'll get a raise
to $75 a week."
     Here are the three possible answers:
     A. The choice of straightforward thinkers: "I'd like to get that job.
When can I start?" 
     B. The correct funny choice: "That's great. I'll come back in a month."
     C. The slapstick, illogical choice of those with right frontal damage:
"Hey boss, your nose is too big for your face!"

     Clothing That Protects Against Pesticides

     A California graduate student noticed that farm workers and
weekend gardeners tend to wear street clothing and don't want to
bother with steamy protective gear that would shield them from
pesticides in fields and flower beds. So she devised a method to protect
their skin from pesticide exposure by building a chemical shield into
clothing. 
     Working with a faculty advisor, Louise L. Ko of UC Davis grafted a
chemical compound called hydantoin to the surface of common fabrics.
It forces some pesticides to degrade into nontoxic chemicals. Throwing
the soiled clothing into a washerful of bleach after wearing rinses away
the nontoxic pesticide residues and reactivates the pesticide-degrading
chemicals.
     In lab tests, the fabrics broke down carbamate pesticides by 99%.
The researchers haven't yet tested the fabric against organophosphate
pesticides like malathion, commonly used on alfalfa and strawberries.

     A Way to Scrub Teeth in an Emergency
     Feel an urge for a fresher mouth but you don't have a toothbrush,
water, toothpaste or floss?
     A Dutch dentist developed Chew 'n' Brush, a tiny disposable bristle
brush for scrubbing away plaque and stimulating your gums. The device
has a sort of hinge-like stem that fits over the edge of your teeth. To
work properly, the little brush must by correctly positioned in your mouth
and chewed for 10 to 20 minutes.
     The brush is saturated with peppermint oil and the sugar-free
sweeteners sorbitol and bacteria-inhibiting Xylitol. The package carries
an odd but obvious warning: "Do not swallow the brush."
     The brush's maker, Advanced Orange Hygiene International Inc. in
Orange, which purchased rights to the brush from its inventor, says it's
been available in Europe for more than three years and has been tested
by the Royal Dutch Navy, Norwegian marines and a few California
dentists. It's sold in some health food stores.
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