Improbable Research

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.

British Gas, in trying hard to honor Murphy’s Law, has run afoul of it. A basic law of nature, Murphy’s Law is known by various names. British Gas favors the possibly-ancient, and probably-honorable, and almost-certainly British “Sod’s Law.” The company issued a press release which begins:

7 October 2004

The formula that proves that ‘Sod’s Law’ really does strike at the worst possible time

BOFFINS have finally proven mathematically a rule that everyone knows is perfectly obvious each time their e-mail crashes on a deadline or the shower runs icily cold….

The press release goes off the rails (and rails are a part of the saga of Captain Murphy), so to speak, when it tells the following, surprisingly wrong, history of Murphy:

Sod’s Law is the English expression for US saying ‘Murphy’s Law’, which was named after a US Air force boffin, Captain Edward Murphy, who in the late 1940s used his boss as a human guinea pig in a painful experiment that went embarrassingly wrong. The French call it ‘La loi d’emmerdement maximum’.

Historian Nick Spark recently did the detective work to track down the details of Captain Edward A. Murphy, Jr’s part in the story of Murphy’s Law. Spark’s report shows that there was and is quibbling about Murphy’s exact role — but that role certainly is very different than the nth-hand, much-mutated version in the British Gas press release.

(NOTE: Murphy and two other individuals were honored — posthumously in two out of the three cases — with a 2003 Ig Nobel Prize.)

As for the new formula… Well, anyone who wants detailed mathematical insights to the workings and misworkings and consequences of Murphy’s Law would do well to consult Robert Matthews. Matthews is the world’s preeminent authority on all things mathematical concerning Murphy’s Law. (And like Murphy, he has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for work concerning Murphy’s Law.)

(Thanks to Wendy Grossman for bringing this to our attention.)

A recent experiment in Germany shows that botox can make people’s armpits smell better. Botox - aka “botulinum toxin” - has had a curious reputation with the public. First it was feared: it can kill, after all. Then it was cheered: the fashionable were delighted to hear that something with a hint of danger could make their wrinkles vanish. Now we are on the verge of a third, and rather different, wave of acclaim….

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

Ig Nobel Prize-winner Sanford Wallace is back in the news. In 1997, Wallace was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Communications. The citation taciturnly identified Mr. Wallace and his early work:

Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions of Philadelphia — neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night have stayed this self-appointed courier from delivering electronic junk mail to all the world.

Numeous reports in the press say that Mr. Wallace has now become a prosperous pioneer in the spread of computer spyware. And that he is being prosecuted for again pursuing his proclivity. Phew!