Flashback Friday: Breasts don’t just bounce; they do figure-eights.

Photo: flickr/…love MaeganFor this week's Flashback Friday, we're revisiting a post from the old NCBI ROFL blog. Back in the day we were mostly writing for our fellow scientists, so we simply posted the abstract of the research article and let our readers make of it what they would. Although the result was was hit or miss with our lay readers (which is why we ended up writing a introductory blurb for our Seriously, Science? posts), we think this one is definitely a "hit". But whether it should be read by most people... well, we'll leave that to you to decide!Breast displacement in three dimensions during the walking and running gait cycles. “This study aimed to assess the trajectory of breast displacement in 3 dimensions during walking and running gait, as this may improve bra design and has yet to be reported. Fifteen D-cup participants had reflective markers attached to their nipples and trunk to monitor absolute and relative breast displacement during treadmill walking (5 kph) and running (10 kph). During the gait cycle, the breast followed a figure-of-eight pattern with four movement phases. Despite a time lag in resultant breast displacement compared with the trunk, similar values of breast displacement were identified across each of the four phases. Fifty-six percent of overall breast movement was vertical, suggesting that 3-D assessment and the elimination of trunk movement in 6 degrees of freedom are essential to accurately report breast displacement during the gait cycle.” Related content: Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Putting suction cups on your boobs… for science! Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Practical do-it-yourself device for accurate volume measurement of breast. Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: What the f**k is a “placebo bra”?