“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.
Month: May 2004
Animal Rights Outrage
Many, or at least some,or perhaps someone somewhere, will, or might, or perhaps could feel outrage about Warp-a-Kitty. See it here.
Lip, eye, and nose
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 […]
Igs in Oxford
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.
More From Professor Lester
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. […]
Nudist Research Library
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.
Another Chance at Troy’s Bear Suit
“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 […]
Love and Alikeness
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 […]
Move over, Einstein
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. […]
Bad Science Movie Plot?
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 […]