His hed is asymmetrical yay

[dreamer_easy]

New Scientist is always full of fascination. Just one issue (23 July) is chocka with stuff which I'd like to rave about - trypanosomes' lazy use of a single promoter for hundreds of genes, a possible cure for IBD using nerve stimulation, that Austrian cardinal (and pal of the Pope) who rejected evolution, yet another study showing that the antidepressants keeping me alive don't actually do anything (but also proof that chronic fatigue syndrome isn't imaginary, news which will not stun any of its many sufferers), etc.

Let me instead talk about the Doctor's head.

Firstly, Christopher Eccleston's remarkable noggin, which would be an ideal candidate for ear shape recognition, as described in that overstuffed issue of NS.

Secondly, the characteristic which David Tennant's incoming bonce shares with Paul McGann's ovary-exploding visage: their faces are both asymmetrical. Have a look at the cover of DWM 359: Tennant's eyes don't quite line up. Now, NS is always running articles about some study or other which shows that symmetrical faces are the most attractive. But what if slight asymmetry adds the spice of interest? Or is finding both gentlemen gorgeous merely another sign of my fathomless perversion?

Comments

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

Tennant's face is *very* crooked, so much that it looks like he had an accident at some point. His nose is bent in one direction, and one side of his eye-socket looks slightly sunken. However, I think he's literally entrancing, and much prefer his asymmetric looks to John Barrowman's more normal face. There's not as much there to catch the eye.

[amy-chesis.livejournal.com]

Woah! I thought I was the only one who had noticed that David Tennant was ever-so-slightly cross-eyed, as exampled on the latest cover on DWM. He's got a beautiful bone structure, though I still much prefer Eccleston's strikingness to Tennant's rather delicate prettiness.

[phlegethon-vii.livejournal.com]

Don't ask me, I'd rather shag McCoy :p

[severa.livejournal.com]

I've always found a guy with slightly odd/off features far more attractive and interesting than the perfectly symmatrical. Symmatry is boring.

Like Jack Davenport's squiffy eye.

And as my brother pointed out once: If symmatry is beauty, than spiders ought to be the most attractive animal on the planet, but they're not.

Ear shape recognition?

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Something like this?

from the journal of taleya.

[drox.livejournal.com]

...a possible cure for IBD using nerve stimulation...

I take it that's not Infectious Bursal Disease then.

[whochick.livejournal.com]

Symmetry is over-rated! lol. I just have to look at anyone I've ever crushed on (Paul McGann, Neil Finn, Ralph Fiennes etc) and all of them have endearing little quirks in the scon department.

*runs off and looks at her husband*

Nods.

*runs back, leaving bewildered husband in livingroom*

Yep. The observation holds true across the board.

[cherrypep.livejournal.com]

Findings from several studies show that there is a poor relationship between attractiveness and symmetry in human faces: http://cogprints.org/4349/01/Zaidel2005.pdf

There would appear to be a link between health and symmetry, although also no clear link between attractiveness and health.

Apparently, there's a question as to whether 'beauty' is a cognitive function at all, as such. If not, the chances are that the studies in the NS were just asking the wrong question, in the good old garbage in - garbage out tradition. What's beauty? Might as well ask about art.