Improbable Research

"Could dandruff be altering the world?s climate?" That is the provocatively-worded question used to begin a news report that is almost as interesting as its beginning, The article, in New Scientist magazine, is about new research on what’s floating around in the atmosphere.

The April issue of mini-AIR just went out. It includes news about a sea monster discovery (a study to be published this month reveals something unexpected about the history of sea monster sightings.)

Lock three men in a room, make them smoke cannabis, and then try to provoke them into being hostile. Thirty years ago a team of American doctors actually conducted this daring experiment….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian

Investigator Jim Cowdery writes:

Just in case you don’t already know about this: Komar & Melamid’s
questionnaire project about desirable art was well-publicized, but I just
discovered their similar project about desireable music, which resulted in a
CD.

"The most wanted song" is five minutes long and comprises a medium-sized
group (guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, violoncello,
synthesizer, and low male and female voices) performing in a rock/R&B style.
It narrates a love story, and has a moderate tempo, volume, and pitch range.
It will be enjoyed by approximately 72% of listeners. "The most unwanted
song" is 22 minutes long, and features accordion and bagpipe (tied at 13% as
the most unwanted instrument) along with banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ,
and synthesizer (the only instrument to appear in both ensembles). It
involves an operatic soprano rapping and singing atonal music; advertising
jingles, political slogans, and elevator music; a children’s choir singing
jingles and holiday songs; and dramatic juxtapositions of loud and quiet
sections, fast and slow tempos, and very high and low pitches. Fewer than
200 individuals in the entire world will enjoy it.

A video of Eric Schulman’s brilliant 60-second-long History of the Universe is now up on the National Science Foundation’s web site. It shows Dr. Schulman performing what was originally a 200-word written piece that appeared in the Jan/Feb 1997 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Dr. Schulman first performed it at the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, where a book publisher saw him and offered him a contract to expand it to book length. Dr. Schulman rose to the challenge, resulting in the now-classic A Briefer History of Time. Dr. Schulman’s original 200-word piece, by the way, has now been translated into more than 30 languages.

Mato Pavlovic of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in
Berlin and Michael Dean of the University of Delaware have joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS).