I recently purchased a copy of "All About Your Kilt" by Bob Martin in which I found a reference to a paper published in the journal "Nature" that refers to the kilt. (L. Ehrenberg, G. Von Ehrenstein, "Gonad Temperature and Spontaneous Mutation-rate in Man" Nature, 21 December 1957, pp 1433-1434.) Being a scientist, all be it, a materials scientist, I just had to read this one.

The title basically says it all. As a product of the cold war period and the early nuclear age, the paper points out the greater influence of temperature on mutation rate vs. typical radiation exposure. It concludes with an observation that the regimental wearing of the kilt may be a means of reducing mutation rates. While I can not critically assess this paper, I can say that it has made for some interesting conversations with my kilt sceptical friends (and their girlfriends.)

Rick