Awards for bizarre science Cat tongues are more efficient than brushes, longer vacations mean a longer life, even dinosaurs suffered from cervical spondylosis* ... what is arguably the most bizarre science award in China once again paid its annual tribute to the spirit of curiosity on last Saturday. China’s equivalent of the Ig Nobel Prizes, the U.S. parody* of the Nobel, the Pineapple award is given in fields including psychology, physics and biology. Ten awards were handed to global scientists who based their seemingly trivial findings on serious scientific activities. 13-year-old offender sent to rehab center A 13-year-old boy was sent to a rehabilitation center for three years for killing a 10-year-old girl in Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, the harshest punishment within the current legal system for a minor, local police told The Beijing News on Sunday. Police also confirmed that the killing was conducted by the boy himself, and his parents neither knew nor took part in it. Overloaded trucks blamed The collapse of an overpass in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, which killed three and injured two, was caused by heavily-overloaded vehicles, according to the country’s transport authority on last Thursday. The collapse of the upper span bridge, which is 82 meters long and 9.5 meters wide, happened on October 10 in Wuxi after two excessively overloaded trucks carrying piles of steel coils used the overpass in succession*. GZ Metro refuses scary Halloween makeup After being accused of lacking Halloween spirit, the Guangzhou metro in Guangdong Province last week said it was only trying to prevent passengers from panicking when it required some “ghouls” and “witches” to remove their Halloween makeup. Transit workers at the city’s Hanxi Changlong Station had asked pre-Halloween revelers* to wipe off their makeup before being allowed to pass security checks. According to the result of a poll initiated by a news site on Weibo, about 90 percent of 75,000 respondents supported the Gaungzhou metro. (SD-Agencies) | 