Sideswipe: April 5: Swishing implants

A letter from the New England Journal of Medicine (1994): "A 51-year-old woman who had recently come from sea level presented with cough and congestion at our emergency room in Frisco, Colorado (altitude 9300ft [3200m]). She described a "swishing sound" in her breasts. She had saline breast implants for 20 years and had noted this unusual sound on previous travel to high altitudes. She said that the sound in her breasts would disappear on her return to sea level or resolve slowly during a prolonged stay at high altitude. A chest film revealed crescent-shaped air-fluid levels in both implants. Trapped air in breast implant expands at high altitude (Boyle's Law) that the volume of combined gas varies inversely with pressure. Those of us who live at high altitude know this well. When we return home from lower altitudes – toothpaste tubes expand and so do bags of potato chips, so too would breast implants.

Spooky but nice

"It was the 25th anniversary of my dad's death," writes a reader. "I was, as always, thinking about it all day long. He was only 49 when he passed. Was passing a funeral home and got kind of sad, little more than normal. Was just hitting me hard. I was as at a stop light. Looked at car in front of me ... licence plate read: LUV DAD."

What would be the scariest message to receive from aliens?

Message one: "Thank you for taking part in our 'universe simulation'. You will be pleased to know that many interesting scientific discoveries have been made thanks to your participation. The simulation will be powered down in approximately 16 of your weeks. Goodbye."

Message two: "If you are reading this, then you are the last civilisation in the universe. Trillions of us once inhabited your solar system as the last outpost. One by one we all face extinction from an unknown force, one we cannot quantify despite our knowledge of the secrets of the universe. Good luck in your quest for survival."

Second man on the moon quote

"It was the irony. It was the same irony that caused me to think, pause, and just inwardly chuckle, just momentarily, that, God, here are two guys further away from home ... than two guys had ever been, but there are more people watching us than anybody else has ever watched two people before in history." - Buzz Aldrin