Improbable Research

Investigator Lorenzo Stievano writes:

This is the answer we needed to students that find chemistry not enough sexy! I would like you to notice the fine detail of the equilibrium double arrows: in chemistry, all equilibria are supposed to be dynamic.

The image is from the study

“{trans-1,4-Bis[(4-pyridyl)ethenyl]benzene}(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) Complexes and Their Supramolecular Assemblies with -Cyclodextrin,” Sergio H. Toma, et al., Inorg. Chem., 43 (11), 3521 -3527, 2004. 10.1021/ic0352250 S0020-1669(03)05225-X.

(To see an enlargement and details, click on the image).

The March issue of mini-AIR just went out. It discusses Project Cork Rot, a professor-professor error, the Foot-Smell Registry, and the tiller vibration poet. It touches on each of the following topics: orifice demarcation; pythonic flicking; tough women where;? masked chinchilla tones; and other things.

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We pass on the sad news that Stefek Zaba is dead.

Two weeks ago, on March 12, at the Ig Nobel show in Bristol, Stefek sang the role of Atom, the little atom who falls in love with a beautiful woman chemist, in the mini-opera “Atom & Eve.” His performance was filled with vim, gusto, and atomic cheer.

Stefek, an engineer, worked at Hewlett-Packard for twenty years, and was, from what we hear, a beloved “character” (a word colleagues used in telling us about Stefek) of the best sort. We met Stefek only for the performance, and for a brief chat afterwards. Stefek proposed, quite insistently, to write several articles for the Annals of Improbable Research. Now we will all have to do without.

Our sympathies go out to Stefek’s family and friends.

This photo was taken by Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker, at the performance. Stefek’s co-stars, Vicki Broderick and Ian Henderson, are visible to the left. (Click on the photo to see an enlargement.)

Shocking documentary

Joshy Joseph’s Walking Dead deals with officially ‘dead’ men in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, who are desperately trying to prove that they are not dead but are alive. They are declared dead because their relatives and family members wanted to grab their land and this is the easiest way of achieving this….

Lal Behari contested in three Parliamentary elections, one against Rajiv Gandhi in Allahabad, one against V.P. Singh and the third against another Mritak Ramdas Yadav. For his long struggle in resurrecting himself from the ‘dead’, he won the parallel Noble Prize called the Ig Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003,” adds Joseph. Lal Behari does not add Mritak to his name anymore because his individual battle is over.

So says a March 23, 2007 Screen India report. The Statesman reviewed the film favorably. But, like the living dead, it has received little attention outside India.

Tanja Gabriele Klein has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. She says:

As you can see here, my hair is luxuriant and flowing indeed… I hold a Master’s degree in French literature and a diploma in psychology and am currently working on my Ph.D. thesis in aggression research. Other interests include the psychology of giftedness, (meta)memory, and Theory of Mind/autism.

As to my credentials as a scientist, an overview of my publications up to now can be found here.

Tanja Gabriele Klein, M.A., LFHCfS
Pedagogical Psychology
Justus Liebig University
Giessen, Germany

(Click on the photo to see more detail.)