Improbable Research

A Wiltshire inventor has designed a novel way to cook an egg without using water.

Simon Rhymes, 23, from Chippenham, thought up the idea for the Bulbed Egg Maker (BEM) while studying project design at Bournemouth University.

After experimenting with more than 600 eggs, Mr Rhymes says he can now produce a “perfect” boiled egg in six minutes.

He has patented the BEM, which uses high-powered halogen bulbs to cook the egg before slicing the top off.

So says the BBC in an October 11, 2006 article.

Carol Waseleski published a new report! It’s entitled “Gender and the use of exclamation points in computer-mediated communication: An analysis of exclamations posted to two electronic discussion lists,” Carol Waseleski, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 11, no. 4, 2006, article 6. The author explains that:

“Past research has reported that females use exclamation points more frequently than do males. Such research often characterizes exclamation points as “markers of excitability,” a term that suggests instability and emotional randomness, yet it has not necessarily examined the contexts in which exclamation points appeared for evidence of “excitability.” The present study uses a 16-category coding frame in a content analysis of 200 exclamations posted to two electronic discussion groups serving the library and information science profession. The results indicate that exclamation points rarely function as markers of excitability in these professional forums, but may function as markers of friendly interaction.”

(Thanks to investigators Gillian Trimble and Philip Reilly for bringing this to our attention.)

As anticipated — much anticipated — the most famous dead sparrow in the history of cricket DID fly again — for the first time since it was killed in a match at Lord’s Cricket Ground in 1936. The bird is now starring in “The Grand House Sparrow Exhibition” at the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Dave van der Wal of RTV Rijnmond accompanied Kees Moeliker as he traveled from the museum to London, reverently took custody of the bird from its keepers at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and returned in quiet triumph — on an airplane — to Rotterdam.

To see van der Wal’s video report, click on the image at right.

White mice will be used to test athletes’ food at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to make sure it is not poisoned.

The Xinhua news agency says milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil, salt and seasonings will be tested by white mice, 24 hours before they are used in cooking or served to athletes. Beijing’s Municipal Health Inspection Bureau says the mice will develop adverse reactions to poisoning within 17 hours, much sooner than other testing methods. Other safeguards will also be used. All of the food arriving at Olympic restaurants will be monitored and recorded and food storage areas will be fitted with alarms and video cameras.

So says a November 17, 2006 report by the ABC.

(Thanks to investigator Richard Fitzpatrick for bringing this to our attention.)

A study called Artists’ Suicides as a Public Good explains how we benefit when a famous artist kills himself. As far as I know, this is the only academic report that credits Kurt Cobain as its major source of information….

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

Today’s (today being November 15, 2006) Chronicle of Higher Education includes a job ad that is, in its way, educational. It suggests the thought: “No wonder students’ geography scores are so low.”

Basenjis are “known as ‘the barkless dog from Africa’… Although they do not bark, they have a large vocabulary of squeaks, cries, and a loud yawn.” So says the group called Basenji Companions. The group disseminates a recording of an avante garde musical performance called “Basenji Howling Accompanied by Flute.”

A 13-year-old girl said to be shedding tears of stone is being treated at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.

Savitri Kumari, hailing from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, was examined by doctors at the Rajendra Prasad Centre for Opthalmic Sciences (RP Centre) at the AIIMS, who has been suffering from the unusual ailment for the past two years.

“We have examined her and called her for a detailed examination by a team of experts tomorrow,” RP Centre Medical Superintendent Shakti Kumar Gupta said.

He said the doctors at the AIIMS were curious to check this strange ailment.

So says an August 30, 2006 Times of India report.

Investigator John Cawley of Cornell University writes (a while ago — it’s just now bubbling to the surface of our pile):

I’m going to shamelessly nominate myself for the Ig Noble Prize in Economics for my paper “Body Weight and the Dating and Sexual Behaviors of Young Adolescents”, which appears as Chapter 6 in Robert T. Michael (editor), Social Awakening: Adolescent Behavior as Adulthood Approaches, 2001, (Russell Sage: New York) for proving that heavier teenage girls are less likely to date.

Thank you for your consideration,
John Cawley

Investigator Cawley’s study has also been published separately:

“Size Matters: The Influence of Adolescents’ Weight and Height on Dating and Sex,” John Cawley, Kara Joyner and Jeffery Sobal, Rationality and Society, vol. 18, no. 1, 2006, pp. 67-94.

Investigator Wolter Seuntjens spied an intriguing research tidbit (in Sven Speybrouck & Koen Fillet, Jongens & Wetenschap 2. Roeselare [Belgium]: Globe, 2003, p. 406):

In Josette De Cock the Royal Academy for Boys and Science incorporates its first animal trainer. Josette has shared her life for the past fifty years with a tortoise. For half a century she has winked at the beast and ten years ago this tenacity was rewarded: the tortoise winked back at her. Mrs. De Cock, welcome in the Royal Academy for Boys and Science. And do keep up talking to your pet. Who knows, one day…

Met Josette De Cock lijft de Koninklijke Academie voor Jongens & Wetenschap haar eerste dierentemmer in. Josette deelt al 50 jaar lief en leed met een schildpad. Een halve eeuw heeft ze dagelijks naar het beest geknipoogd en tien jaar geleden is die vasthoudendheid beloond: de schildpad knipoogde terug. Mevrouw De Cock, welkom in de KAJW. En vooral: blijven praten met uw huisdier. Wie weet, ooit op een dag…

St. Ambrose University psychologist Carol DeVolder describes an incident involving a tool that psychologists use for all sorts of purposes. The incident concerns, in a way, the use of this item to teach chlldren how to become good parents.

First, some background. The tool is called RealCare® Baby II-plus:

RealCare® Baby II-plus must be fed, burped, rocked and have its diapers changed, and it records all positive and negative care it receives, just like RealCare® Baby II.

Rechargeability. Users can now plug in Baby anytime to ensure adequate power throughout simulation using a wall charger. Get up to five days operation from one 6-hour charge. Recharge up to five Babies at once through a single wall outlet with the new Charging Station.

Now the incident. Professor DeVolder writes:

One of my close friends is a high school girls’ cross-country coach. One of his girls brought her baby to practice and asked him to watch it for her. It started to rain and he tossed the baby in his trunk. A neighbor saw him and called the police. Shortly after he got home, the police arrived on his doorstep to investigate the report. My friend thought it was funny, the police did not. I told him he would fail the class (and I wonder whether his student should be penalized for choosing someone so obviously negligent to watch her baby).

Investigator Tammy Kralle writes in reference to the imminent exhibit in Rotterdam of the famous cricket sparrow:

I think you should make sure everyone knows that the cricket sparrow has nothing to do with Edward Bartholic’s book Cricket and Sparrow, which is one of my favorites. I first read it while I was in medical school, and re-read it yearly.

An eminent mathematics professor writes:

I have just discovered a market that exists for a new business. A student had his “private tutor” regrade the final exam and is “demanding” the new grade.

If I start a business to meet this need, here’s how its first advertisement will read:

“Not doing well in math? Our staff has year of teaching experience. Just bring in your final and old exams and we will re-grade them for you and find you all the points you need to raise your grade. We have yet to see the F that couldn’t be changed to a C.”

Some people are madly, deeply, perpetually obsessed with bad breath. In most of them, this obsession is a sign of mental problems. The great exception is Mel Rosenberg, whose pursuit of bad breath is scholarly and experimental. Halitosis has taken him to the academic heights. Mel Rosenberg is professor of microbiology at Tel Aviv University’s medical school, and holds honorary appointments both at the University of London and at the University of Rochester in the US.

Professor Rosenberg is a destroyer of myths….

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

If you are attending to the Genetics Momentum conference in Rotterdam tomorrow, October 9, 2006, come to Marc Abrahams’s talk at 4:00 pm.