Two Small Turkeys?

Discovery Magazine reports:

One side effect of the obesity epidemic in America is rarely noted: Women's chests are expanding nearly as fast as their bellies. Poor eating habits, as well as breast implants and the estrogens in birth-control pills, have led to an increase in the past 15 years of more than one bra size for the average American woman—from a 34B to a 36C. For many women, this has been a burdensome trend. A pair of D-cup breasts weighs between 15 and 23 pounds—the equivalent of carrying around two small turkeys.

Scientific solutions to this burgeoning problem are being sought by Deirdre McGhee, a sports physiotherapist and graduate student in biomechanics at the University of Wollongong in Australia:

To best support breasts, a designer has to understand how they move. To that end, McGhee's team in Australia, headed by biomechanist Julie Steele, tags women with light-emitting diodes and asks them to run on treadmills.

We cannot but believe that a new fashion trend is in the offing. Glitter, of course, is completely last week; but multi-colored light-emitting diodes?

Breasts move in a sinusoidal pattern, Steele has found, and they move a lot. Small breasts can move more than three inches vertically during a jog, and large breasts sometimes leave their bras entirely. "We have videos of women who, particularly if the cup is too low, spill all over the top," Steele says.

The larger the breasts and the more they move, the more momentum they generate. To change or stop that momentum requires a large force, usually applied through bra straps. When straps are thin, the pressure exerted through them can be so great as to leave furrows in the shoulders of large-breasted women. As the straps dig into the brachial plexus, the nerve group that runs down the arm, they may cause numbness in the little finger. In some cases, breasts can slap against the chest with enough force to break the clavicle.

McGhee and Steele have set their sights on no less an accomplishment than design of the world's first "smart bra."

It uses intelligent materials and electronic textiles to sense when breast motion increases and tighten appropriate parts of the bra in response.

And if terrorists acquire this technology, and are able to produce remote controls . . . ?

We shudder.

The article is HERE.
H/T to NRO.