Improbable Research

Layla Gordon has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. She says:

I hold a BSc in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence from University of Southampton. I currently work as a research scientist in Ordnance Survey Research Labs in UK. And studying PHD in Computer science in the field of Multi-Agent technology. I previously was researching Human Gait as a Biemottric as part of a Human-ID DARPA-funded project at Southampton University.

My latest innovation is an application called MapSnapper which has recently been featured in many scientific journals including New Scientist.

Layla is also a member of RazorBladeKisses, described as “UK’s only EGL Toybox Goth band.”
Layla Gordon, LFHCfS
Research Scientist
Ordnance Survey Research Labs, Ordnance Survey
C530, Romsey Road, Southampton, United Kingdom

(Click on the photo to see more detail.)

Regarding the risk of pilot incapacitation, at least a few factors distinguish this risk from manned aircraft….

The first topic discussed was whether the agency should create a new medical certification category for UA pilots or use an existing certification. The rapid consensus by the group was that the creation of a new certification would be prohibitive for a number of reasons related to the difficulty, expense, and time of initiating any new rulemaking activity.

So says the report called “Unmanned Aircraft Pilot Medical Certification Requirements”, [DOT/FAA/AM-07/3], published by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Aerospace Medicine in February 2007.

(Thanks to investigator Steven Aftergood for bringing this to our attention.)

Schoolgirls celebrities after exposing Ribena

Two Kiwi schoolgirls are worldwide celebrities after their school experiment forced an international pharmaceutical and food giant to admit it made false claims about vitamin C levels in Ribena.

GlaxoSmithKline, the second-largest food and drug company in the world, was yesterday fined $217,500 in the Auckland District Court after it admitted 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

The case was brought by the Commerce Commission after a science experiment in 2004 by 14-year-old Pakuranga College schoolgirls Jenny Suo and Anna Devathasan raised questions about the vitamin C content in Ribena….

So begins a March 28, 2007 report in The Press. The report includes a video interview with the girls.

Older, seen-it-all Ribena scholars fondly, if confusedly, recall the puzzlingly-titled editorial “Ribena Tooth Kind,” published in the British Dental Journal, vol. 185, no. 3, 1998, p. 107.

(Thanks to investigator Jenny Bailor for bringing the new research to our attention.)

Instrumented scissors, used to cut fingernails in different directions, show that fingernails are twice as difficult to cut towards the base of the nail as across it. Consequently cracks are deflected around the end of the nail, protecting the nail bed from damage.

So writes Dr. Roland Ennos of the University of Manchester, in describing one of his many discoveries about the mechanics of human fingernails.

Marilee Jones, MIT’s dean of admissions who has spoken out nationally against the craze over beefing up teens’ resumes, has resigned after 28 years at the school for misrepresenting her academic degrees, university officials said today.

Jones listed on her resume that she had degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but she had no degrees from any of those schools, said MIT chancellor Phillip Clay.

So says an April 26, 2007 Boston Globe report. The Bureaucracy Club takes note.

Ps. Some Bureaucracy Club members recommend “The Secret Life of Marilee Jones.”

Here are some research reports that are icky, or cutesy, or both….

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

Today is Malaria Awareness Day, according to US President George W. Bush.

[Despite] anecdotal evidence that ceiling height exerts a critical influence on consumers, we were unable to uncover any theory or research that explains how, when, and why ceiling height might exert an effect. This paper seeks to address this issue by investigating the thesis that ceiling height may affect the very manner in which consumers process information and thus how they respond to products…. Relatively high ceilings may prime thoughts related to freedom, whereas lower ceilings may prompt those that pertain to confinement.

So says the study “The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use,” Joan Meyers-Levy and Rui Zhu, Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming Sept. 2007). The study is proudly announced in a press release issued by the University of Minnesota, where Professor Myers-Levy toils.

Professor Myers-Levy is perhaps best known for an earlier study:
“How Ambiguous Cropped Objects in Ad Photos Can Affect Product Evaluations,” Laura Peracchio and Joan Meyers-Levy, Journal of Consumer Research (June 1994). Vol. 21, p. 190-204.

Police have served Mr MacKillop with a notice for “placing a garden gnome with intent to cause harassment”.

Mr MacKillop, 46, was woken in the night by two officers who warned him that the gnome was offensive to his neighbours.

So says a September 9, 2006 BBC report.

A woman is facing jail after running a racket “kidnapping” garden gnomes.

So says a March 27, 2007 BBC report.

(Thanks to investigator Timothy Nelson-White for bringing this to our attention.)

Almost always, news media race to report a press release that says:

_______ cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at _______

However, that didn’t happen with a press release issued on April 17, 2007 by the American Association for Cancer Research, which says:

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies….

This news has been reported by just a very media outlets. Presumably, it would be of little interest to the public.

(Thanks to investigator Stephen Black for bringing this to our attention.)

The puzzle of the pebble that ‘ploufs’ or ‘plops’

Ever wondered why, sometimes when you throw a stone in a lake you hear ‘plouf’, and another time you’ll hear ‘plop’?

No, neither has this column’s writer. But the phenomenon has clearly troubled some: a group of French researchers has received funding to explain the plouf/plop puzzle.

Oh the naivety, I hear the team say. Understanding why a pebble makes a plouf or plop sound is only the starting point for the scientists, from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Lyon, and could lead to technical advances to improve maritime safety….

So begins an unnamed writer in the March 23, 2007 issue of Cordis Express. He or she refers to the work of stone-skipping physicist Lydéric Bocquet. Bocquet’s (and colleagues’) study, called “Making a splash with water repellency”, published in Nature Physics, vol. 3, March 2007, can be downloaded at your pleasure.

(Thanks to investigator Margaret Christie for bringing this to our attention.)

Here are some runners-up in the Tiller Vibration Competition, announced in mini-AIR 2007-02, to create a limerick based on this research report:

“Vibration Characteristics of Walking and Riding Type Power Tillers,” Bini Sam and K. Kathirvel, Biosystems Engineering, vol. 95, no. 4, December 2006, pp. 517-28.

Here are those runners-up.

Investigator DENNIS MCGRATH:
Vibrations encountered while tilling
When seated are borderline thrilling,
But walking behind
Merely jostles the mind
And the body, which may not be willing.

Investigator DAVID F. FANNING:
Bob’s wife went to five different malls
a tiller to buy, she recalls.
She happily guessed
that the one he’d like best
was the one that would vibrate his balls.

Investigator RICHARD CLAWSON and an unnamed colleague:
My tiller’s vibration is neat,
I don’t have to use hands or feet,
I just ride all around
While it tills up the ground
and excites me somewhere in my seat.

The winner was announced in mini-AIR 2007-03.

Soap dominates the news this week.

SOAP NEWS #1: The Los Angeles Times reports. on April 17, 2007::

Drug tests exonerate punk rocker

[Don] Bolles, 50, the legendary drummer for the Germs, spent three days in jail after Newport Beach police said they found GHB, the date-rape drug, inside a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap in Bolles’ 1968 Dodge van.

Police ran a field test on the yellowish goop after stopping Bolles for a broken taillight on April 4.

But a more sophisticated analysis by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department crime lab detected no GHB in the soap, officials said Monday. As a result, all charges against Bolles will be dismissed, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office said.

SOAP NEWS #2: Reuters reports, on April 20, 2007:

Bar of soap gives caffeine kick in the shower

Inventors have created a soap infused with caffeine which helps users wake up in the morning.

The soap, called Shower Shock, supplies the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee per wash, with the stimulant absorbed naturally through the skin, manufacturers say. “Tired of waking up and having to wait for your morning (coffee) to brew?” ask the makers…

(Thanks to investigator Mary O’Grady for bringing the Dr. Bronner’s soap to our attention, and to investigator Tom Ulrich for alerting us to the caffeinated cleaner.)

Joe Nacchio, a former AT&T executive tapped to transform Qwest Communications into a major telecommunications competitor, was convicted Thursday of 19 of 42 insider trading charges…

So says an April 19, 2007 Associated Press report. Mr. Nachio shared the 2002 Ig Nobel Economics Prize with all the other

executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hauspie, Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International, Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom, Global Crossing, HIH Insurance, Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications, McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world.