Improbable Research

Do you enjoy conformity? If so, perhaps you already read
the journal that is quietly yet splendidly called “Conformity“.

(Thanks to investigator Tom Roberts for bringing this to our attention.)

Higher U.S. gasoline prices may slim more than just wallets, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

Entitled “A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity,” the study found that an additional $1 per gallon in real gasoline prices would reduce U.S. obesity by 15 percent after five years.

The report, written by Charles Courtemanche for his doctoral dissertation in health economics, found that the 13 percent rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling pump prices.

So says a September 11, 2007 Reuters report.

Investigator Piri LaCoste writes:

Why don’t you write more about photocaged morpholino? It’s my favorite chemical name.

Ps. I truly love morpholinos of any kind.

Many traditional weather forecasts are based on the behaviour of animals: cows sitting down, sheep putting their heads into hedges, hogs running around with straw in their mouths… There are hundreds of them.

Even if you assume that our ancestors were a superstitious lot, who saw disaster in every twitch of a lamb’s tail, so many of these old proverbs have common elements that it’s hard to discount them entirely.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to think up ways of testing out some of these sayings.

So writes Howie Watkins. His early study on the topic, tilted “Cats and Weather Prediction,” appeared in the July/August 1996 issue (vol. 2, no. 4) of the Annals of Improbable Research

QUESTION: For what discovery can Coca-Cola enthusiasts thank Mr Prof. Dr. sc. agr. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Ewald Schnug?

ANSWER: They can thank him for his two studies:

?Coca Cola Is It! The Ubiquitous Extractant for Micronutrients in Soil,? Ewald Schnug, J?rgen Fleckenstein, and Silvia Haneklaus, Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, vol. 27, no. 5-8, 1996, pp. 1721- 30. The abstract reads in part:

soils, particular [sic] for manganese (Mn). The main ingredients of Coca”Coca Cola has been found to be an excellent extractant for micronutrients in Cola, phosphoric acid, reducing sugar and carbon dioxide are well proven in common extraction recipes. The overall extraction force of Coca Cola was similar to that of commonly used phosphoric acid methods.”

—–

“Factors Affecting Available Micronutrient Concentrations in Soils Using Coca-Cola (R) as Extractant,” Ewald Schnug, J?rgen Fleckenstein, and Silvia Haneklaus, Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, vol. 29, nos. 11-14, 1998, pp. 1891-6.

(We can and do thank to investigator Tom Gill for bringing the first study to our attention several years ago, and to investigator Terra Rosa for reminding us about it and mentioning the second study.)

Tonight is Ig Nobel night at the Genoa Science Festival.

The event starts at 9:00 pm. at the Ducal Palace. AIR editor Marc Abrahams will introduce Ig Nobel Prize winners Stefano Ghirlanda, Donatella Marazitti, Ruurd de Jong, and Kees Moeliker, and Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club man of the year (and rock star) Dr. Piero Paravadino.