Improbable Research

A scientist at MIT writes: “This went out as part of a recent job postings email. I’m glad to see that Nuclear Reactor Operators need to be at least 18 years old.”

REACTOR OPERATOR, Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, to perform reactor startups and shutdowns; provide control room coverage; maintain reactor instrumentation and equipment; perform diagnostic tests and calibrations, refueling operations, and decontamination procedures; prepare samples for irradiation; package and ship radioactive samples; and perform safety reviews and analyses of reactor system modifications and experiments. Will train to become shift supervisor to oversee the above listed duties and routine reactor operations and assist with various special reactor and experiment projects. Will work in areas containing radioactive materials, adhere to all radiation protection measures and exercise sound radiological control judgment, and participate in the annual requalification program for licensed personnel. REQUIREMENTS: licensure by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a high school diploma or GED and either two years of technical college or Navy nuclear education or equivalent, and U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status. Must be responsible, punctual, 18 years or older, and able to work effectively as part of a team and to think and work independently. Strong motivation for advancement to senior levels needed. Background in physics and chemistry and at least one year of additional experience working with either nuclear reactor mechanical or electrical systems preferred. Work schedule is normally Monday through Friday with possible evening, night, and weekend duty. MIT-00002829-5

Those who enjoy looking at cute little animals, especially cute little animals some of whom are doing odd things, may enjoy looking at the justalittleguy blog.

However, those who detest little animals but crave all other things cute can make do by reading David L. Cute’s study:

“Comparison of two techniques of marking the horizontal axis during excimer laser keratorefractive surgery for myopic astigmatism,” Burka JM, Bower KS, Cute DL, Stutzman RD, Subramanian PS, Rabin JC., American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 735-737.

Tim Radford, just-retired science editor of The Guardian, was scheduled to be a competitor in the Great Intelligence Debate, a featured part of the Ig Nobel Tour of the UK. This note explains why he was unable to participate:

I’m really sorry to have missed the great Ig roadshow. I was wrestling with the intricate problem of getting my wife to accept that she was going to mark her birthday with dinner in a restaurant with the family and then - because the restaurant was a long way a way - rest the night in a hotel. The trouble was, the restaurant was one of a chain, and rather so-so, the town was a notorious no-no (a commuter dormitory for smug merchant banker’s chief clerks) and I had to smuggle into our baggage a pair of walking boots, a peaked cap and a set of overalls in her size. We managed it: when we got to the restaurant my daughter and family sprung it on her: for her 70th birthday she was going to learn to drive a steam engine at 8 am the following morning.

Okay, most women I know would call for divorce papers immediately. My wife, however, is a frustrated engineer who falls in love

Read the rest of this entry »

A video called “Heredity” teaches the rudiments of evolution, with a music video of “a song so catchy it’ll get your genes.” The video is one of many offered by Ignite! Learning, a company owned substantially by the prolific Neil Bush, brother of the U.S. president. The Bushes’ mother, Barbara, also supports getting this video into schools everywhere.

German speakers (or readers) will appreciate the German edition of the book The Effects of Peanut Butter on the Rotation of the Earth more fully than will non-German-speakers (or readers). Theoretically, that is.

Yes, they do occur in nature, to some extent. Each of these photos shows a puli. Click on them for details.

An eminent American mathematician who has young children writes:

The town [where I live] is forming a committee to study and decide on some town wide curriculum stuff. one of the moms is a professor at MIT. She contacted the town — detailed her credentials and offered some thoughts. They turned her down. essentially they said they didn’t want people coming in with ideas because they knew what they wanted to do and were only interested in applicants with an "open mind" — i.e. would do what they wanted.

We pass on, without overt comment, the headline of a March 22, 2006 press release issued by Duke University:

“Executive” Monkeys Influenced by Other Executives, Not Subordinates

The study to which it pertains is in the February 21, 2006 issue of Current Biology.

(Thanks to Investigator Martin Gardiner for bringing this to our attention.)

Asymmetrical scrota, bulls’ penises and date rape by an ostrich: this year’s Ig Nobel tour was a risqué business, writes Kees Moeliker…

So begins the introduction to Kees Meoliker’s diary of the just-concluded Ig Nobel tour of the UK, written specially for The Guardian. (It’s taking the place, this week, of the Improbable Research column.)

The photo is by The Guardian’s Sarah Lee.

[Correction, entered April 18: Gita Bhutani, who told Kees about the song, wrote in to say that she had identified the wrong singer for the song about the sparra. The song was sung by Duncan Macrae.]

Zoltan Egeresi, inventor of the novel (except in novels and in movie comedies) anti-hijack contraption mentioned here yesterday, of Santa Cruz, California, also invented an exciting bathroom accessory. US patent #20040064884, granted April 8, 2004, is for a “Toilet Odor Blocking System.” (Click on the image to see an enlargement.) As Mr. Egeresi describes it:

The object of this invention is to block any odor from escaping the toilet before it contaminates the whole bath room…. Air pump creates bubbles in the tank, bubbles flow through the hose guiding bubbles into the toilet tank. By covering the human waste with scented soap bubbles it blocks any odor from escaping into the surrounding area…. The object of this invention is to cover the excrement with bubbles (or foam) as fast as possible.

Several co-winners of the 2002 Ig Nobel Economics Prize are in the news yet again. A March 22, 2006 New York Times article says:

A former Enron treasurer testified today that Kenneth L. Lay presided over meetings in which top executives discussed the energy company’s precarious finances and endorsed the continued use of complex accounting arrangements because they made it possible for Enron to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Ben F. Glisan Jr., the former treasurer, provided some of the strongest testimony against Mr. Lay heard by the jury so far, as the prosecution entered the home stretch of its case against Mr. Lay, Enron’s former chairman, and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the company’s former chief executive….

Mssrs. Ley, Glisan and Skilling shared the prize with the executives, corporate directors, and auditors of their own and some twenty-odd other companies for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world.

(Click on the diagram to see an enlargement. Diagram courtesy of U.S. government.)

Investigator Martin Gardiner alerts us to a newly patented (U.S. patent #7,014,147, granted March 21, 2006) anti-hijacking system. (Click on the image to see an enlargement.) The inventor describes it three-stoogically:

This low cost non lethal Anti Hijacking System is… a last line of defense against a single or team of would be hijackers….

When one or more person is trying to over power the pilots, this anti hijacking system can provide a non-lethal last line of defense. Doors on the cockpit may not be penetration proof. When pilot or flight attendant is confronted with a situation where the pilot’s door is about to be penetrated, a concealed stainless steel net from below the carpet will hoist up all people to the ceiling or simulations side by side winch activation will hold the trapped people by the wall immobilizing them.

The inventor is Zoltan Egeresi of Santa Cruz, California, of whom we shall have more to say.

The scientist who told us the tale of the stuffed baboon has now sent in a photo of the taxidermied half-gentleman in residence in his (the scientist’s) study.

(Click on the image to see an enlargement.)

An eminent British scientist writes:

I’ve only twice declared things at Customs.

The first time was two large boxes being brought from India, full of microscope slides from leprosy patients — thinly sliced leper, I guess you could call it. In those days they waved it through without batting an eyelid — try that nowadays.

The second time was at Dover, where I had an even larger cardboard box containing a stuffed baboon (well, to be precise, the top half of a stuffed baboon), which at the time seemed a bargain in a street market in Arezzo in Italy. We’d already nicknamed him Alphonso, and poor Alphonso got impounded (trading in primates was by then a bit problematic). Fortunately we managed to get an export certificate out of the Ministry of who knows what in Rome, and so I trotted down to Dover to collect him; “Shame, we were getting rather used to him looking at us”, as the Customs guy said…. And he still is on my study wall, frightening children of all ages.

Today’s Dentist of the Day is:

Dr. Randall W. Toothaker
Associate Professor
College of Dentistry
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

(Thanks to Investigator Jeff Blair, DMD, for bringing this to our attention.)