Vapidity inspires a poem

Inspired by our quest to identify the author of the wonderfully vapid advertising slogan "Without chemicals, life itself would be impossible," investigator Dave "Maddog" Maddox discovered that the phrase inspired a poet to give birth to a poem that begins: The rain in Spain is bound to contain Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane… Our romantic quest was announced in […]

Boys will be boys

The “Boys Will Be Boys” column in the March/April 2005 issue of the magazine presents another health collection of research by and for adolescent males of all ages. One of the highlights this time is a splendid whopping new survey of colorectal foreign objects that appeared, more or less serendipitously, in a hospital in South […]

Readable little numbers

People who love numbers — truly love them — needn’t hesitate when asked the question: "What is your favourite book?" There is only one possible answer: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates, published by the Rand Corporation in 1955… So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian. [And a further note. […]

The power of a Big Band

"Before the Big Band, there was no space or time." So says what we presume, or at least hope, is a typo. It appears in a curious press release issued by the University of Helsinki. The press release is curious in that it’s not clear why the university decided to write or issue it. ADDENDA: […]

Improbable Research