The Frontal Cortex

The Real Mysteries of Our Time

Posted by Jonah Lehrer on December 21, 2006
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These are just a few questions that Slate’s Explainer couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer:

What comes after 999 trillion?

Lasers are now powerful and small (at least I think they are), so why don’t our troops carry laser guns?

Is it possible to collect all the cookie dough in Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream and actually bake cookies from it?

How clean is bar soap in a public bathroom? Is it “self-cleaning,” since it’s soap? It seems like a health hazard to me.

Why is grilled chicken tasting increasingly rubbery and odd?

I have noticed that a lot of mainstream movies feature men peeing. Are the actors really peeing?

Can someone be forced to masturbate?

I’m particularly interested in the question concerning the cleanliness of soap.

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Comments

  1. #1 Eric Juve
    December 21, 2006

    According to Google

    999 trillion + 1 = 9.99 × 10^14

    Oh well

  2. #2 AgnosticOracle
    December 21, 2006

    What comes after 999 trillion

    I think wikipedia has slate and google beat on this one.

    Quadrillion
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion

  3. #3 doctorgoo
    December 21, 2006

    This reminds me of an episode from Friends…

    Joey:”Why can’t we use the same toothbrush, but we can use the same soap?”

    Chandler:”Because soap is soap – it’s self-cleaning.”

    Joey:”Alright, well, next time you take a shower, think about the LAST thing I wash, and the FIRST thing you wash.”

  4. #4 Ahcuah
    December 21, 2006

    What comes after 999 trillion?

    999,000,000,000,001.

    Duh.

  5. #5 Mustafa Mond, FCD
    December 21, 2006

    What comes after 999 trillion?

    999 trillion and 1.

    what do I win?

  6. #6 Eric Juve
    December 21, 2006

    Ahcuah got it, made me feel a little dumb…

  7. #7 Monimonika
    December 21, 2006

    How clean is bar soap in a public bathroom? Is it “self-cleaning,” since it’s soap? It seems like a health hazard to me.

    What’s neglected to be considered here is that soap doesn’t exactly make the dirty stuff “disappear”. It’s main purpose is to loosen the dirty stuff from whatever it is that is being cleaned so that water can carry the dirty stuff away when rinsing off the soap suds. So, a bar of soap does not self-clean at all in the absence of something else (water in this case) to pick up and carry the dirty stuff away from it. A bar of soap dropped into mud continues to be covered in mud (read: dirty) until the mud is either rinsed or scraped off of the soap.

  8. #8 Alon Levy
    December 22, 2006

    Can someone be forced to masturbate?

    Why not?

  9. #9 bar
    December 23, 2006

    Lasers are now powerful and small (at least I think they are), so why don’t our troops carry laser guns?

    Given “powerful & small”, there would still be the matter of energy storage.