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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research
("mini-AIR")
Issue number 2007-06
June 2007
ISSN 1076-500X
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel,
AIR, the
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A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
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2007-06-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2007-06-02 Imminent Events
2007-06-03 What's New in the Magazine
2007-06-04 Peanut Butter Research (1)
2007-06-05 Peanut Butter Research (2)
2007-06-06 Classification Classification Problem
2007-06-07 Video Poker for the Master
2007-06-08 Rhomboid Intramembrane Protease Poets
2007-06-09 Ant Crowding Competition
2007-06-10 The Secret to Success
2007-06-11 Newest Hairy Scientists &
Professor-Professors
2007-06-12 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Waffles and Age
2007-06-13 BLOGLIGHTS: Morals, Doppelgangers, Secrets,
Deception
2007-06-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bulb Interpretation, Steps,
Fat
2007-06-15 Improbable Research Events
2007-06-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2007-06-17 Our Address (*)
2007-06-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2007-06-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
Items marked (*)
are reprinted in every issue.
mini-AIR is
a free monthly
*e-supplement* to the print magazine
Annals of
Improbable Research
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2007-06-02 Imminent Events
AUSTRALIA:
The Improbable Australia tour will happen the last two
weeks of
August, with events in Tasmania and possibly also in
Sydney.
Details will be posted soon at
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>
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2007-06-03 What's New in the Magazine
The May/June issue (vol. 13, no. 3) of the Annals of
Improbable
Research is the special Rivalry issue. Highlights
include:
<> "Voracek's Variety," by Alice Shirell
Kaswell.
ABSTRACT: Martin Voracek published more than 100 studies.
Here is a
sampling of Dr. Voracek's published research on a variety
of topics.
<> TITLE: "Tips from a Master," by Alice
Shirell Kaswell.
ABSTRACT: Suicidologist David Lester (of The Richard
Stockton College
of New Jersey), author of almost 2000 academic reports,
wrote a letter
to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is summarized
here. The
letter disparages academics who do not accomplish as much
as Professor
Lester does. Professor Lester explains how he avoids
wasting his own
time and how he enjoys the finer aspects of life.
TITLE: "Boys Will Be Boys," by Katherine Lee.
ABSTRACT: Research by and for adolescent males of all
ages and sexes.
TOPICS INCLUDE: homeland security reaches the anus; many
means of
obtaining malodors; the economics of strategic virginity
loss; flaccus-
bull; underwear-inside views; defecation and tight
clothes; mammoth,
sloth dung; swimsuit, sweater and a math test
The table of contents is at <http://tinyurl.com/2nkbrf>
To subscribe (6 paper issues per year) go to
<http://improbable.com/subscribe/>
or see info at bottom of this newsletter.
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2007-06-04 Peanut Butter Research (1)
Here is another in our series of meaningfully meaningless
micro-
studies.
SUBJECT: The popularity of conserves for scientific
research
AUTHORS: John Bell, Irenka Suto and Rita Nadas --
University of
Cambridge
AIM: To identify which fruit conserve is most popular
with
researchers _
METHODOLOGY: The name of a range of conserves was typed
in to
Google scholar and the number of hits was recorded.
RESULTS: The number of hits in descending order were:
23,400 -- Peanut Butter
21,000 -- Chocolate Spread
03,610 -- Marmalade
02,660 -- Strawberry Jam
02,330 -- Plum Jam
01,320 -- Raspberry Jam
00,381 -- Blackcurrant Jam
00,304 -- Gooseberry Jam
CONCLUSION: Researchers write most about peanut butter.
Further
research is needed into the social and environmental
impacts of
this study.
DISCLAIMER: No toast was consumed in the conduct of this
research.
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2007-06-05 Peanut Butter Research (2)
A team from the University of Edinburgh converts peanut
butter
into diamonds. They are mounting an exhibit at the Royal
Society
in London. Details are, directly or indirectly, at
<http://tinyurl.com/25xxq9>.
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2007-06-06 Classification Classification Problem
Following the micro-wave of (two) complaints about the
professor-
professor project (see last month's mini-AIR),
INVESTIGATOR
SHANKAR UNNI writes :
***
Since everyone seems to be tiring of "Professor
Professors", how about
going the other way -- looking for single-named
professors. Depending
on how you choose to look at it, the single name could be
considered
either a first name or a last name, or both.
Here's a start: Prof. Arvind. Just Arvind.
His home page is at
http://csg.csail.mit.edu/Users/arvind/
***
And so there's a decision-and-a-half to be made. Ought
single-named
professors be classed as professor-professors? If so,
should we give a
special name to this sub-specialty?
If you have a strong opinion, please vote for one of
these:
(A) mono-professor
(B) uni-professor
(C) just plain professor-professor
Send ballots to:
NAME SINGLE-NAMED
PROFESSORS
c/o <marca AT
chem2.harvard.edu>
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2007-06-07 Video Poker for the Master
After hundreds of hours of research, Todd Mateer
determined that
if you quit your job to play video poker full-time in
South
Carolina, you won't do too well. For this work, Mateer
was
awarded a master's degree from Clemson University in
1999.
Details are trumpeted in a press release at
<http://tinyurl.com/ysxlk4>. An early version of
the study is at
<http://tinyurl.com/18r>.
(Thanks to investigator Charles Bergquist for bringing
this to
our attention.)
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2007-06-08 Rhomboid Intramembrane Protease Poets
The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Rhomboid
Intramembrane Protease Limerick Competition, which asked
for a
limerick to honor the following study:
"Enzymatic
Analysis of a Rhomboid Intramembrane Protease
Implicates
Transmembrane Helix 5 as the Lateral Substrate
Gate," Rosanna
P. Baker, Keith Young, Liang Feng,
Yigong Shi and
Sinisa Urban, Proceedings of the National
Academy of
Sciences, vol. 104, no. 20, May 15, 2007,
pp. 8257-62.
The winner is INVESTIGATOR LEILA HADJ-CHIKH, who
limerickisized
thus:
A rhomboidal enzyme can stall
When working a membranous wall.
The
protease waits
At
helical gates,
And then there's no problem at all!
And here is the latest from Limerick Laureate MARTIN
EIGER:
Hydrolysis happens, but how's it
The cellular membrane allows it?
There's a
serine, recessed.
Hey, who
would have guessed?
This paper explains it. Go browse it.
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2007-06-09 Ant Crowding Competition
Ant Crowding is the subject of this month's limerick
competition.
To enter, compose an original limerick that illuminates
the
nature of this report:
"Optimal
Traffic Organization in Ants
Under Crowded
Conditions,"
A. Dussutour, V.
FourcassiŽ, D. Helbing and
J.-L. Deneubourg,
Nature, 2004, vol. 428, pp. 70-3.
RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that
your
poem adheres to classic limerick form.
PRIZE: The winning poet will receive a (if we manage to
send it
to the correct address) a free, possibly rhomboid issue
of the
Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry
per
entrant) to:
ANT CROWDING
COMPETITION
c/o <marca AT
chem2.harvard.edu>
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2007-06-10 The Secret to Success
What is the secret to success? The current issue of the
journal
BJU International includes a special section that might,
just
might, give the key:
"Overactive Bladder: The Path to Successful
Outcomes,"
BJU International, vol. 99 no. s3, June 2007, pp. 1-16.
The study is online at <http://tinyurl.com/2jbv29>.
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2007-06-11 Newest Hairy Scientists &
Professor-Professors
New members of The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for
Scientists
(LFHCfS):
Heather Jordan
See them and the other members at:
<http://improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
New additions to the ranks of the professor-professors:
Daoud S. Daoud --
Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey
Francisco Carlos de
Francisco -- Universidade Estadual
Paulista
Jœlio de Mesquita Filho
Karam Karam --
American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Solomon S. Solomon
-- University of Tennessee, USA
Villadsen Villadsen
-- Copenhagen Business School
See them and the full list at:
<http://improbable.com/2006/02/09/prof-profs/>
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2007-06-12 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Waffles and Age
Each month we select for your special attention a
research report
that seems particularly worth a close read. This month's
pick:
"Differences
in Perception of Sweet and
Savoury Waffles
Between Elderly and Young Subjects,"
S. Kremer, J. Mojet
and J.H.A. Kroeze, Food Quality
and Preference,
January 2007, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 106-16.
The authors report
that:
"The observed
texture flavour interaction effect
was not different
for the elderly and young...
[but] the young
were more efficient in chewing."
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2007-06-13 BLOGLIGHTS: Morals, Doppelgangers, Secrets,
Deception
Here are some recent topics in our blog:
<> Hungarians' high moral standards
<> The physicist who takes on toilet paper
<> Bored of wrestlers, back into birds
<> Round and round (attachments)
<> National leaders and their doppelgangers
<> Hazarding about Freud's posing
and some from the newspaper column in The Guardian:
<> Wrestling with a bad metaphor
<> Linnaeus and the lost secrets of Lapland
<> The Global Deception Research Team
... and others
Read the blog
every day at
<http://www.improbable.com>
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2007-06-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bulb Interpretation, Steps,
Fat
EXAMINED AUTOMOTIVE LIGHT BULBS, INTERPRETED
"Interpretation of Automotive Light Bulb Examination
Results: An
Intriguing Case," Eric Stauffer, Journal of Forensic
Sciences,
2006.
TURD TRODDING
"Miocene Mammalian Footprints in Coprolites from
Lisbon,
Portugal," Miguel Telles Antunes, Ausenda C. Balbino
and LŽonard
Ginsburg, Annales de PalŽontologie, vol. 92, no. 1,
January-March
2006, pp. 13-30. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to
our
attention.)
INTERSPECIES EXCHANGE
"Enhancing the Survival of Aspirated Human Fat
Injected Into Nude
Mice," Y. Ullman, M. Hyams, Y. Ramon, D. Beach, I.J.
Peled, and
E.S. Lindenbaum, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, vol.
101,
no. 7, June 1998, pp. 1940-4. (Thanks to Wendy Cooper for
bringing this to our attention.)
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2007-06-15 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
IMPROBABLE AUSTRALIA TOUR --
AUG 2007
IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY --
OCT 4, 2007
IG INFORMAL LECTURES --
OCT 6, 2007
FESTIVAL DELLA SCIENZA, GENOA, ITALY -- OCT 2007
NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS - GET INSIDE EVENT
LONDON,
UK -- NOV 23, 2007
DFG ANNUAL ASSEMBLY, BERLIN, GERMANY -- JUL 1, 2008
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2007-06-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a paper magazine.
(It's not
just the little bits of overflow material you've been
reading in
this newsletter). Subscribe at
<http://improbable.com/subscribe/>
or send in this form:
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FAX:617-661-0927 <air AT improbable.com>
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2007-06-17 Our Address (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927
EDITORIAL: marca AT chem2.harvard.edu
SUBSCRIPTIONS: air AT improbable.com
WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>
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2007-06-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!)
wherever
appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate
that
the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT
distribute mini-
AIR for commercial purposes.
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mini-AIRheads -------------
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce
the last
few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson
COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen
ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne
PSYCHOLOGY EDITOR: Robin Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos,
Ernest
Ersatz, S. Drew
MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach,
Sheldon
Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts
(c) copyright 2007, Annals of Improbable Research
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2007-06-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
What you are reading right now is mini-AIR. Mini-AIR is a
(free!)
tiny monthly *supplement* to the bi-monthly print
magazine.
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To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
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