Improbable Research

If you read our recent column “The Mystery of the Yellow Cake” (in The Guardian) about a mathematics paper called “The Yellow Cake,” and were bemused or confused, here’s a remedy.

The phrase “yellow cake” is not explained or even mentioned anywhere in “The Yellow Cake.” That is the mystery.

We have just received a five-page letter from Andrzej Roslanowski, the co-author of “The Yellow Cake.” Professor Roslanowski appears to be bemusedly hopping mad about the column. In his letter, Professor Roslanowski says:

Everybody can easily answer this question: the yellow cake is a kind of
coffee cake, something small, sweet and yellow that goes nicely with your afternoon
coffee. It is yellow because of yolks, I believe. At least I would avoid those cakes with
artificial colouring.

Our column about the mystery of the yellow cake, he gently informs us, is:

mostly uninformed and empty (and in non-empty places incorrect) …

Read “The Yellow Cake” itself here.

See our column about the mystery of the yellow cake, here.

See a note from a friend of the math journal editor who handled “The Yellow Cake,” here.

Read Professor Roslanowski’s entire letter here.

Read Professor Roslanowski’s newly-added product warning label for the yellow cake, here.

See the point here.

The March issue of mini-AIR just went out. Read it here.

Contents include, among other things:

/ Teaching: A New Spin
/ Hotheads, Buckets, and a Book
/ Non-Cosy Sticky Poet
/ Beauty and Truth: The Correction
/ Zweibeck’s Death Challenge
/ Survey Results: Astronomers vs. Moons
/ Watch What You Eat Limerick Contest
/ RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Does Money Matter?
/ MAY WE RECOMMEND: Together/Apart, Fundulus

Many people, especially academics and taxi drivers, take pride in having arcane knowledge at their fingertips. Dr William B Bean bested them all. Dr Bean’s arcane knowledge was not only at his fingertips; it was about them. Dr Bean spent much of his adult life monitoring the growth of his fingernails….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian. Read it here.

Long-suffering investigator Jon Cramer is, on balance, not pleased with our coverage of chocolate bunny protective packaging research. He writes:

While studying for the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (at the University of Washington-Seattle, WA) I was forced to endure “Dynamic Systems” (2nd quarter) where we studied the nearly identical problem-How much packing material is required to prevent damage to candy? (we modeled candy canes) This was far from trivial, as your ‘Easter Bunny’ story seems to imply about the protection of delicate products. Would the study of this subject been materially different if we had been modeling high value circuit boards? While I enjoy reading about science gone astray, I am somewhat insulted in that ALL of this class of problem has both substantial opportunities for sharpening analytic skills and providing a base for the deeper understanding of the physics of shock and vibration, as well as statistics. I am unsure what your point is?

See the column of which he speaks, here.

See the point here.

For the public health, is bowing a better practice than shaking hands? Investigator Theda Turnbull, who lives in the United States, thinks maybe that is the case. Inspired by the recent suggestion by investigator Sakae Inouye (see that here), she writes:

I’ve been thinking for a while that the Japanese habit of bowing has it all over shaking hands, or God forbid kissing, from a public-health perspective. Perhaps that’s why they live longer and healthier than most people do: it’s not the sushi and seaweed after all.

We would be interested to hear of any published medical studies (please send the complete citations) that might shed light on this question.

We have posted photographs of the lovely scientist Eve and her beloved little oxygen atom, Atom, to accompany the words of the nano-opera “Atom and Eve.” There is also a link to streaming video of the premiere performance. See it all here.