In related news from The New Scientist:

Bra of the Century

"They've been an uplifting support for women for 100 years – whether your cups runneth over or you're stuffing tissue paper around those little lady bumps – it's happy birthday to the bra. However did women get cleavage before?

Women have loved and loathed the intimate technology since it debuted in 1907. We have burnt them on the alter of feminism, used them as cunning catapults, for comic effect (mainly in Carry-On films), as torpedoes (Madonna) and just to perplex some hapless young suitor with fumbling fingers.

But now, it seems we are demanding more from our bosom buddies, which naturally means that designers must understand the physics of bras. The unleashed booby can bounce 14 centimetres during exercise, I learned from this informative site.

And, in this changing climate of, well, climate change, fashion is nothing if not environmentally aware – enter the new heated bra from Triumph, which cuts the need for energy-expensive heaters during winter, its makers claim. Lingering in your lingerie will never be chilly again – apart from the 98% of your body that isn't similarly protected…

Is that a bra too far? Give me some suggestions of how this vital apparatus can be improved. And I'd love to hear of any novel uses you've found for your breast hammocks.

Gaia Vince, deputy online editor"