Improbable Research

Some science books are deadly dull. But there is no dullness in Robert Cohen’s “Deadly” adventure series. It’s got plenty of good, old-fashioned deadliness…

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

Let’s Corporation has a device that is said to make flowers talk and sing.

The Marcellus Mystery, described in the October mini-AIR, concerns a research paper that seems to have been co-written by three (3) people each named Lenora Marcellus. It prompted this letter from Alan W. Harris:

I don’t know about Marcellus, et al., but here’s another for you:

Alan W. Harris and Alan W. Harris, “On the revision of radiometric albedos and diameters of asteroids,” Icarus 126, 450-454 (1997).

If you check the article, you will find the following footnote:

1. Since the authors’ contributions to this work were equal, the order listed is alphabetical. And yes, the middle names are both “William”.

So this is a case of duplicity of three names. I leave it to the readers of AIR to decide if two authors with three identical names is more unusual than three authors with two identical names. I dare say the odds of either is less than being hit by an asteroid. Actually, both AWH’s specialize in that very question.

Cheers,

Al the elder

P.S. We’re not related.

P.P.S. If you cite the article, you can refer to it as “Al et Al”.

NOTE: The other Harris was honored in a splendidly backwards gesture: with the naming of an asteroid.

Investigator Earle Spamer send this news about recent Ig Nobel winners:

The CNN.com “over”view of the Ig Nobel ceremony leads with the Prize for the combover. But they have an even higher notice of distinction. They provide a Quick Vote box for the unscientific measurement of whether voters adhere (or not) to the five-second rule.

Investigator D. Edwards writes in reference to a citation we presented in mini-AIR 2004-07. The citation is:

“http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~fwelter/flyingsnails.htm”>Flying Snails — How Far Can Truncatellina (Pulmonata: Vertiginidae) Be Blown Over the Sea?” C. Kirchner, R. Kr?tzner and F.W. Welter-Schultes, Journal of Molluscan Studies, vol. 63, 1997, pp. 479-87.

Investigator Edwards offers this:

Here in bosky Penge (South-East London) we don’t wait for the wind to encourage molluscan aeronautics. The snails in our garden (Helix aspersa) are given free flying lessons over the fence. We know the lessons are effective because they don’t come back.

Yours strato-gastropodally,

David Edwards.

Further thoughts about flying snails appeared in the June 22 Improbable Research newspaper column.

The October issue of mini-AIR just went out.