Improbable Research

“This is a really nifty way to demonstrate the speed of light (popularly known as “c,” of course) to students using readily available materials. Plus, who doesn’t like putting marshmallows in the microwave?”

So writes investigator Julia Lunetta.

Read about the method here.

Many, or at least some,or perhaps someone somewhere, will, or might, or perhaps could feel outrage about Warp-a-Kitty. See it here.

Researchers in one field do not always pick up on good suggestions from those outside their speciality. Take, for example, the case of the Hapsburg lip.

“I do not propose to deal with one of the most famous inherited features, the ‘Hapsburg lip’ … because it could almost be described as a medical condition, about which I am not qualified to speak. However, I feel sure that the ‘Hanoverian eye’, the ‘Coburg nose’ and the ‘Danish neck’ will prove equally fascinating.” …

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

Here are some photos from the Oxford show in this year’s Ig Nobel Tour of the U.K. and Ireland. Over the next several weeks we will be posting photos from the other shows on the tour, too.

How does he do it? How does Professor David Lester, the wonderfully prolific suicidologist who has published well over 1000 academic reports, many on aspects of suicide, manage to produce so much fine work? Professor Lester and his work were profiled in the Mar/Apr issue (vol 10, no. 2) of the Annals of Improbable Research.

Now we know at least a little more.Professor Lester recently sent a letter to the Chronicle of Higher Education. He complains that many professors complain, and that they don’t produce as much work as he does. He writes:

“I have published dozens of books and hundreds of scholarly articles and notes. … Some friends have wondered whether I ever sleep. I need eight good hours a night, and I have a couch in my office for my afternoon naps. I have had three wives during the past 32 years… I used to lunch with colleagues, but I found that their continual complaints about the administration and the students soured my attitude toward the college. … These days, I eat in my office and check the sports news online. For many years, I had my name removed from the faculty e-mail list so that I had no awareness of what activities were taking place at the college… do not pick up the telephone in my office, and my voice-mail message informs callers that I do not check for telephone messages. … I have avoided as much college service as I can in recent years…

See Professor Lester’s full letter here.

That letter prompted an unhappy rejoinder from another Chronicle reader, who begins by saying:

“I was infuriated by David Lester’s “Complain, Complain” …”

Read that letter here.

Professor Lester is setting a standard that few have attained. Perhaps the world should agree with him that, as he seems to explain, many others could match his breathtaking output — if for some reason they chose to do so.

If you are interested in nudist research, take a gander at the American Nudist Research Library (ANRL).

The ANRL is “DEDICATED TO PRESERVING NUDIST HISTORY WITH
A COMPREHENSIVE ARCHIVE OF NUDIST MATERIAL.”

The library’s home page is here.

“There were times I was so tired I’d take a bath and fall asleep in the tub for two hours and wake up in cold water,” Hurtubise said, while lighting a cigarette with his trusty blowtorch.

That word picture is evocative, and so is the photographic picture of what he was working on, which you can see here.

If you’ve really been wondering what it’s like to own Troy Hurtubise’s bear suit — and if, as seems probable, you missed your first crack at purchasing it — take heart. And act quickly. Because the suit has not vanished from the face of the earth. Troy tell us that the Mark VII, the one-of-a-kind, most advanced model, is again up for auction on Ebay. But if you want it, if you need it, if you really, really want to own something about as close to incomparable as things can be in the early 21st century, than bid now. Here.

Whatever your fate with the suit — or, heaven forfend, without it — we wish you much good fortune.

Men who were in love had lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone - linked to aggression and sex drive - than the other men. Love-struck women, in contrast, had higher levels of testosterone than their counterparts, the team will report in Psychoneuroendocrinology.

“Men, in some way, had become more like women, and women had become like men,” says Marazziti. “It’s as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, because it’s more important to survive [and mate] at this stage.”

So says a report in the May 5, 2004 issue of New Scientist, describing the latest findings of 2000 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Donatella Marazziti and her team.

See the entire New Scientist report here, and a May 7 report from ABC News here.

See what the team won their Ig for here.

The new version of Portfolio of a Genius has just arrived. For the better part of a decade, I have been receiving the laboriously crafted, increasingly thick versions of this wondrous work. They arrive in my mailbox, always unanticipated, always surprising by their very existence….

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

Is it possible to devise a science movie plot that’s worse than what shows up in theaters?

Alan Boyle, the science editor of MSNBC.com, was driven to wonder that very thing. To stave off madness, or perhaps to avoid going to movies, he is running a contest:

Deliciously bad science plots: For years, scientists have taken potshots at the plots of big-budget disaster movies like “10.5,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “The Core” and “Armageddon.” Heck, there’s even been grumbling about what “Troy” has done to the Bronze Age. Here’s your chance to get in on the action, take shaky Hollywood science to the next level and even win a prize while you’re doing it. For our “Deliciously Bad” movie-plot contest, we’re soliciting plot summaries for hypothetical science-fiction sequels — say, “11.5,” or “The Day After ‘The Day After Tomorrow,’” or “Armageddon II,” or some other howler….

See details here. The contest ends Monday, May 21.

We at the Annals of Improbable Research are always happy to help scientists interact with the real world, and vice versa. The producers of a new television series have asked us to spread the word about an improbable research opportunity. Here’s their story:

“GILLIGAN’S ISAND” – The Reality Series

AHOY PROFESSORS!
Have you ever dreamed of being stranded on a deserted island with a movie star? Can you make a telephone out of a coconut? Does the idea of being on a cool new reality series excite you out of your proverbial lab coat? If so…then please read on!

TBS and top reality producer Mike Fleiss (The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, High School Reunion) are bringing the classic sitcom “GILLIGAN’S ISLAND” back to life! The reality adaptation will feature real life versions of the show’s original characters; A real-life skipper, first mate, millionaire couple, Kansas farm girl, movie star and A PROFESSOR! Characters will work together to get off the island and a big reward will be up for grabs!

Next Entertainment is looking for enthusiastic male professors (full, associate, adjunct or assistant) aged 21 to 40 to be cast as THE PROFESSOR. Any and all academic backgrounds considered.

For immediate consideration please contact Craig Bland at 818–972 -0997. Go to www.gilligancasting.com for details

[HISTORICAL NOTE: Russell Johnson, the actor who played the part of the Professor on the original television series “Gilligan’s Island,” later took part in one of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies. Mr. Johnson, through his unlikely-yet-gallantly-inspiring early television exploits, influenced an enormous number of children to grow up wanting to become scientists — years later, some of those former children, now grown up and having become scientists, were thrilled to see and meet Mr. Johnson when he took part in the Ig Nobel ceremony (that year, he and several Nobel Laureates physically presented the Prizes to that year’s new Ig Nobel Prize winners). We are pleased to help,in this small way, to honor him!

A true scholar is tenacious in pursuing the truth. Here’s an example.

Doron Witzum, co-discoverer of the famous codes that he believes are hidden in the Bible (a discovery for which he shared the 1997 Ig Nobel Literature Prize), has written many papers in response to critics. Some of these papers have lengthy titles, such as the one that begins “A Response to McKay’s Response to My Response to His Response Concerning My Article…” Read that paper here. See a list of it and other papers here.

The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) has four splendid new members: Martha Farah, Lara Chepenik, Andrea Heberlein, Lars Penke and the not overly shy Felicitas Bidlack. See them and their hair at the LFHCfS home page, here.

Lal Bihari has triumphed in India’s parliamentary election.

A we reported recently, the founder and head of the Association of Dead People — and winner of the 2003 Ig Nobel Peace Prize — was standing for elective office. See that report here.

The election results are now in. Lal Bahari did not come in dead last.

He finished next-to-last, with 3400 votes, edging out Dhruv Kant, who garnered only 3053 votes. For the complete list of candidates and their vote totals, see the list here.

(Also: see Lal Bihari’s official election affidavits here.)

In 1988, Robert W Faid solved one of the oldest and most famous problems in mathematics. Yet almost no one noticed. Cracking the nut that was nearly two millennia old, Faid calculated the identity of the Antichrist….

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