Improbable Research

This book originated as a by-product. During my time as the head of the science section of a now-defunct Swiss news magazine, I accumulated a stack of research studies about weird experiments. Unfortunately my editor had no desire to see these in print, because they violated all the basic journalistic criteria: they were utterly inconsequential, hopelessly ancient or both.

Those are the opening words of The Mad Science Book: 100 amazing experiments from the history of science, newly published in an English-language edition. Written by our friend and occasional collaborator Reto Schneider, this improbably brilliant work first appeared in German, under the title Das Buch der verrückten Experimente. From time to time we will (with Reto’s permission) present tiny bits of it and of the associated online material) here.

The introduction goes on to explain:

The fact that most experiments in this book seem odd by no means implies that they are worthless though there’s no denying that some of them genuinely are). Others appear ridiculous only at first glance, but are in fact truly ingenious. When, in 2005, the German edition of The Mad Science Book became a bestseller, some researchers proudly announced on their websites that their experiments were in it.

“To criminalize the necessary materials of discovery is one of the worst things you can do in a free society,” says Shawn Carlson, a 1999 MacArthur fellow and founder of the Society for Amateur Scientists. “The Mr. Coffee machine that every Texas legislator has near his desk has three violations of the law built into it: a filter funnel, a Pyrex beaker, and a heating element. The laws against meth should be the deterrent to making it – not criminalizing activities that train young people to appreciate science.”

So says a June 2006 Wired magazine article about the widespread political crackdown on kids doing any actual science. The illegal activities in Texas are illegal thanks to the leadership of former Texas state senator Bob Glasgow, who crusaded against beakers and test tubes. For his efforts, Mr. Glasgow was awarded the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry “for sponsoring the 1989 drug control law which make it illegal to purchase beakers, flasks, test tubes, or other laboratory glassware without a permit.”

Click here to see the twitter stream about the Ig Nobel radio broadcast.

Andrei Alexandrescu has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Robyn Croke, who nominated him, says:

I proudly nominate my PI, Andrei Alexandrescu. He is a biophysicist at UCONN.

Andrei Alexandrescu, Ph.D., LFHCfS
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut, USA

This Friday listen to the annual Ig Nobel Prize special (an hour of specially edited hightlights from the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony) on National Public Radio’s “Science Friday with Ira Flatow” program. Listen on the radio or on the web (The Science Friday web site has details about radio stations and times.)

For we who organize the ceremony, it’s always fun to see how the Science Friday producers/wizards manage to boil everything down to an hour. Will they include the mini-opera (“Redundancy, Again”)? We shall see, or rather hear…

Professor Nicolas Guéguen finds significance, or at least fascination, in what might be called voyeuristic microscopy, watching how people react to mundanely noticeable sights and sounds. Many of his experiments involve young female confederates who are shaped or perfumed or who lay a hand upon strangers in particular ways. Generally, the test subjects who respond most vigorously are men.

Guéguen, based at the University of Bretagne-Sud, Brittany, has been pumping out publications since 2000. He honours the academic custom of referring to himself in print with the royal “we”.

His experiments probe a range of human behaviour.

A study called Women’s Bust Size and Men’s Courtship Solicitation, published in the journal Body Image, describes how Guéguen tested “the effect of a woman’s breast size on approaches made by males. We hypothesised that an increase in breast size would be associated with an increase in approaches by men.” The study ends with an 827-word ode on the topic sentence: “Our hypothesis was confirmed.” …

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