Improbable Research

One month after both Dutch and international media reported about my efforts to obtain pubic lice for the collection of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam (see an earlier post on this subject), it is my pleasure to report that the museum received a mere total of six crab specimens: five almost 60 year old dry-preserved, and one freshly preserved specimen in alcohol.

The old pubic lice come from the Municipal Mental Institution ‘Maasoord’, south of Rotterdam. This fine sample was donated to the museum by the insect collector Nico Elfferich (now 80years old) who obtained the crab lice in 1949 from a friend who worked as a nurse at the Mental Institution. The single fresh specimen comes from the Regional Health Service (GGD) ‘Kennemerland’ in Haarlem were, in August 2007, Dr. Anne de Vries was presented a patient complaining of crawling bugs in his crotch. She asked the patient to collect some of the insects, identified them as Phthirus pubis and secured them. Anne de Vries is a rare example of a doctor that took the effort to preserve a recent sample of a declining species.

Both the old and the fresh pubic lice sample will be on display in the museum as of November 20, 2007.

It is my hope that other samples of pubic lice will reach the museum, especially from overseas and with full data, please. Click here to see where we are. For a Dutch language report, see my article in NRC Handelsblad of November 17, 2007.

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) member Brian May, who recently completed his PhD in astronomy from Imperial College London, was today named as chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Click on the photo below to see the university’s official announcement. Dr. May is also lead guitarist for the rock group Queen, a post he has held for many years.

Sexual fantasies increase pain tolerance

Bringing to mind a favorite sexual fantasy may be a good way to lessen pain, according to a recent study of college students by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin.

The work, which tests the authors’ theory about the relationship between pain and mood, could produce simple, cost-free ways to lessen pain in a variety of situations, says anesthesiologist Peter S. Staats, M.D., who led the study. “It also suggests changes in the way physicians should approach patients experiencing pain,” Staats says.

So says a December 16, 1999 press release from Johns Hopkins University. So far as we are aware, Dr. Staats had not published a formal study about this discovery.

Investigator Bessel Mangols alerts us to what he or she describes as “a wonderfully perplexing news report, with an equally perplexing photo, about the 2007 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, I think.” The report is from Interfax, dated October 9, 2007. Here are excerpts:

Orthodox human rights activist: gay-parades should be equated with weapons of mass destruction

Moscow, October 9, Interfax - Roman Silantyev, director the World Russian People?s Council?s human rights center, compared gay-parades to weapons of mass destruction.

This comparison was prompted by the award given recently to the developers of a project for a ?gay bomb?, a hormone weapon which turns an enemy?s troops into homosexuals. The authors were awarded the ?peace prize? given by the so-called Shnobel Prize for the most dubious scientific achievements.

According to the project authors, special pheromones contained in a ?gay bomb? dropped on an enemy?s territory would radically raise soldiers? sexual attraction to each other…

[Patriarch Alexy] told the agency that all structures concerned ?should pay attention to the American know-how and consider ranking gay-parades among weapons of mass destruction with a consequent introduction of moratorium on its proliferation?.

We recently received a note from the United States Professional Sales Organization (UPSA), an organization hitherto unknown to us. It says, in part:

Dear UPSA Member:

First of all, to those who have participated in the recent PhD survey — thank you!
We have no way of knowing who you are to exclude you from this follow- up, so, pardon the intrusion. Second, we have a situation where only one third of those who have viewed the survey have actually completed it. We agree the questions are about a “touchy” subject; but, hopefully you will understand that is exactly why we are assisting the student in gathering the data — so we can provide facts, not fiction.

Here is one of the survey questions:

The “ethics code” serves as window dressing only in the organization.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Somewhat Agree
Neutral
Somewhat Disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

We have questions of our own. Here are two of them:

1. Is it ethical to send messages to strangers and pretend that these strangers are members of your organization?

2. Is it ethical to ask strangers to fill out a lengthy survey that serves as window dressing for your organization?