Improbable Research

Can a machine identify what you’re chewing, merely from the sound? Yes, if you are at a laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, or Hall-in-Tirol, Austria, and if you are chewing potato chips, apples, mixed lettuce, pasta or boiled rice.

Oliver Amft, Mathias Stäger and Gerhard Tröster, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Paul Lukowicz, of Austria’s University for the Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, describe their work succinctly: “Using wearable microphones to detect and classify chewing sounds (called mastication sounds) from the user’s mouth.” But, they explain, this is just stage one of their dream…

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

While attending trade shows for various organic conferences and health shows, I was surprised by the number of people inquiring about organic coffee for enema use.

So says the supplier of S.A. Wilson’s Therapy Blend Enema Coffee. The enema itself requires the expected set of equipment.

(Thanks to G.G. Norquist for bringing this to our attention.)

The “just-in-time” concept trumpeted by business gurus has arrived in the medical publishing world. Now, published just in time for (American) Thanksgiving, comes a rush of research articles about turkeys, fat, bloat, and related topics. The most marketably-titled study, perhaps, is this one:

“The Effect of the Thanksgiving Holiday on Weight Gain,” Holly R. Hull, Duncan Radley , Mary K. Dinger and David A. Fields, Nutrition Journal, vol. 5, no. 29, 2006, http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-5-29.pdf. The authors, who are variously at the University of Oklahoma, at Leeds Metropolitan University, and at the Children’s Medical Research Institute, report:

We found over the Thanksgiving holiday an increase of 0.5 kg in body weight. Although this may seem like a trivial amount of weight, considering the short time frame, this is troublesome since previous research suggests weight gained during holiday periods is retained (Yanovski 2000). Therefore, we found in our sample, the Thanksgiving holiday represented a critical period for weight gain and obesity development. Additionally, it seems as though graduate students or those who are already overweight/obese are at increased risk of greater weight gain.

(Thanks to investigator Albert Trajstman for bringing this to our attention.)

“The Physics of Something Awful” is a short (about ten minutes) video chock full of simulations of quick, nasty physical interactions of line drawings of people and other objects.

(Thanks to investigators Elaine and Robert Pement for bringing this to our attention.)

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is showing animated versions of some of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook drawings.

(Thanks to investigator Delia Frome for bringing this to our attention.)