Improbable Research

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.