Improbable Research

A glowing press release brings news of the end of the WISE (Women International Space Simulation for Exploration) bed-rest experiment:

The volunteers in question are twelve women, drawn from seven European
countries. Since March they have been confined to bed at the MEDES
(French Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology) space clinic in
Toulouse, in what is the longest female bedrest experiment ever
conducted within the European Community. … Beata summarises her experience as follows: "It has really enabled me to
have a much broader worldview, I really have learned so much. I now
have a better understanding of why we go into space."

The volunteers‘ adventures were monitored by a breathless international news media.

When novices talk about this wine or that, the more they talk, the more they’re talking baloney. An experiment has proved it.

Some experiments are more fun than others. This was one of the some. Joseph Melcher and Jonathan Schooler of the University of Pittsburgh carried it out, wrote it up and then published it in 1996 in the Journal of Memory and Language, to the mixed dismay and delight of the oenophile community….

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

"Beardless youth and grizzled geezers: usage of beards on thirteenth century gothic sculpture" is the topic of a seminar to be presented on May 19. Here are details, as announced by the organizers:

Seminar: Thursday, May l9, 2005, 7-9 PM

Location: Foothills Congregational Church, Los Altos
   
Speaker: Ann Jones
Topic: Beardless youth and grizzled geezers: usage of beards on thirteenth century gothic sculpture. In gothic sculpture, youth and age is indicated by absence or presence of beards. This is one of many rules on the usage of beards which everyone "knows." Does reality match this perception? Are there indeed rules with no known exceptions? Are there regional variations? Does sculpture follow fashion in facial hair? Does usage of beards depend on type of sculpture or its location? Major thirteenth century sculpture programs across Western Christendom are surveyed to establish the actual usage of beards. Analysis of several thousand individual sculptured heads and figures demonstrates what exists, and adds to what we "know."

We would enjoy hearing from anyone who attends this event.

Quagnets? Try Quirkle.

Finger-portion relative-length studies are in vogue again. Here is another exciting news flash.