Full throttle, whistling survival, fruits like flies, dead company slogans

The Feedback column of the week (that I write) in New scientist The magazine consists of four segments. Here are snippets from each of them:

• Full of beans — What happens from the gut when a person is full of energy? Bloating is what happens. But mitigation efforts can pose medical risks, explain Iowa State University researchers Donna Winham, Ashley Doina and Abigail Glick. They recently presented a paper titled “Anti-bloating supplements increase blood sugar after bean-based meals” at a recent conference in Denver, Colorado. The specific supplement they tested, alpha-galactosidase, “reduces gas production by breaking down complex carbohydrates into smaller, less fermentable components (but it can significantly increase glycemic response even in healthy adults).” Fewer farts, but at the expense of one higher blood sugar levels…
• Survival of whistling — “Whistles,” a study entitled “The Spiritual Exploration of the Art of Whistles in China” reminds us, “has the function of expressing personal feelings and elevating the mood.” But, explain authors Su Wang and Qingqing Xiao, the practice barely survived a long, dark age of whistling…
• Fruit, now like flies — Even before scientists discovered that a chemical called DNA passes genetic information from generation to generation of all known living creatures, much of our understanding of inheritance came from fruit flies. Fruit received less attention. Now the fruits are catching up. Especially melons…
• Mourning slogans — Very few slogans are a fading testament to the good intentions of the people who ran a particular organization. Two of the most outstanding are “THINK” by IBM and “Don’t be evil” by Google. Both were retired. Presumably each retirement marked the discovery of a nobler ideal. Something more profitable for humanity, or part of it….