In November 2012 someone sent me a link to an article in a Dutch biologists magazine about some research done by Wageningen University, something to do with acupuncture in cows. On itself this already looks quite weird, why would scientists from a reputable university be involved with nonsense like (electro)acupuncture? But Wageningen University has quite a trackrecord in doing pseudoscientific research on homeopathy and they have ties with the anthroposofic research institute Louis Bolk. So this was not that surprising to me.
What was interesting is the background story of the device they used for the electroacupuncture. In the published articles the authors tell it is an improvement of a device developed by the Soviet space program in the nineteen-eighties and used by Valeri Polyakov to stay in good health during his record stay in space. In the following months I tried to find out what could be true about this.