10 silliest ideas from the science hall of shame

London, Mar 4 (ANI): While science takes the credit for those breakthrough discoveries that have changed how humans live, it also boasts a string of silly inventions, many of which haven't really been made public.

Here are 10 of the silliest, as revealed in the New Scientist book How To Make A Tornado:

1. Japanese inventors marked the bicentenary of composer Mozart's death in 1991 by revealing a musical bra, which contained a microcircuit in the clasp and a small loudspeaker, which sat under the armpit. It played a 20-second blast of the Austrian genius whenever it was hooked up, reports the Sun.

2. In 2001, Swiss engineer Paolo Rais created an 18-seater moving table, complete with chains and pully system.

He was so happy with it he wrote to the Queen about it. He believed it would be "a good way for her to meet lots of people at banquets." She never wrote back.

3. Inventors in 1997 put together a muzzle with a built in device to electrocute anybody it took a bite out of. Owners were given a button to press which activated the voltage and frazzle the burglar.

4. Inventor Louis Douglas III put in a patent in 1990 for a synthesiser activated by warm wee hitting a urinal. He hoped the idea would encourage users to "express their artistic talents by creating an appropriate light show or symphony through a loudspeaker."

5. A US firm created a 2,500 pounds prototype of the new shirt, which rolled up its own sleeves as the wearer got hotter. They also claimed it would never need ironing.

6. In preparation for the 1976 Olympics, East German swimmers had 1.8 litres of air pumped up their bottoms to aid buoyancy. It was said to aid crawl and backstroke swimmers, but breaststrokers moaned their gas-filled guts made the feet stick out of the water.

7. In 1998, a German called Karola Baumann came up with a device designed to make it easier to talk to animals- a skullcap with large replica of animal ears attached, which moved as the wearer spoke.

8. In 1986, French inventor Eugene Politzer registered a patent for a laser razor, built with a helium neon tube. Hairs, which passed through a mesh pressed against the skin would be burnt off. It even had a built-in fan to keep it cool.

9. South African Jan Louw combined vacuum cleaning and hair cutter together, but his idea didn't quite take off. The cutter looked like a hair dryer, which sucked in hair to be chopped off.

10. In 1967, a US firm devised a toothpaste which glowed in the dark and reflected the headlights of oncoming motors. The only problem with it was you had to keep smiling while you were walking, even if you were cold or it was raining. (ANI)