Improbable Research

Why would a scientist talk 11 other scientists into eating tadpoles? To answer a scientific mystery, of course; and also because he could. The incident resulted in a 1971 study called On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica.

Tadpoles come in a wild variety of patterns and colours. Most blend in with their surroundings. But some have gaudy patterns or bright colours or both. The question was: Why don’t predators wolf down all of these fetchingly packaged snacks? How can they not have gone extinct?

The leading theory said that the eye-catching tadpoles must taste terrible to predators, so yucky as to be spurned. But it was, as they say, “just a theory” - until Richard Wassersug, of the University of California, Berkeley, put it to the test.

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

How much flatulence does a cowboy produce? A brief Spanish-language video shows, measures, and tells. The video is derived from a BBC production, which says:

Which one of our cowboys expelled the most gas after 24 hours? Well, both Laura and Kyle expelled over 3 litres of gas, above average for human gas production.

(Thanks to Fogonazos for bringing this to our attention.)

In early 2004, we glanced at Professor Lester’s then-approximately 1500 published studies (see “Way to Go, David Lester,” AIR 10:2). Later, we looked at a few of his several hundred publications from the years 2005 and 2006 (see “Lester’s Latest: 2005 & 2006,” “The Economic Art of Suicide,” “Tips from a Master,” and “A Rivalry is Joined: Lester vs. Voracek,” all in AIR 13:3). Since then, in this series called “Lester’s Latest,” we have been attempting to keep up with at least some of his subsequent work.

(That’s an excerpt from the article “Lester’s Latest,” published in AIR 14:1.)

Martin Schiavenato has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. He says:

I do pediatric pain research, particularly facial expressions and their role in the communication of pain. This partially explains my inability to form a decent smile; too self-conscious. Also, I have a rather inborn inability to form a decent smile. Alas, I rub elbows (split ends?) with Brian May

Martin Schiavenato, PhD, RN, LFHCfS
Assistant Professor
University of Rochester School of Nursing
Rochester, New York, USA

Solution to Last Month’s Puzzler

Once you have completed the instructions given in the puzzler, it is a simple matter to complete the transformation of Robert Hooke’s drawing of a flea into a working replica of James Watt’s steam engine.

(That’s an excerpt from the article “Puzzling Solutions,” published in AIR 14:1.)