As we tidy up, having moved the entire Improbable site to a new host, please pardon our smattering of dead links, detritus, and well-aged-whatnot. Most of the big parts are gamboling, but it might take a while to rehab some of the vast archival tunnels, galleries, and wormholes accumulated over three decades.
Moose news in a master’s thesis: “Evaluating the Behavioural Response of Moose (Alces alces) to Acoustic Stimuli,” Denice Lodnert, master’s thesis in biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2021. (Thanks to Sven Swahn for bringing this to our attention.) The author reports: “In this study, I investigated how wild moose (Alces alces) that visited saltlick-stones […]
Words can be used to describe things. A study published in 2019 presents a striking example: “Transformative resources of the terminological internationalization (on the material of German and English),” Vladimir V. Elkin [pictured here], Elena N. Melnikova, and Anna M. Klyoster, in The International Conference Going Global through Social Sciences and Humanities, Springer, Cham, 2019. […]
Things take a turn in this roundabout technical study of lasagna: “Multiphysics modeling of microwave heating of a frozen heterogeneous meal rotating on a turntable,” Krishnamoorthy Pitchai, Jiajia Chen, Sohan Birla, David Jones, Ric Gonzalez, and Jeyamkondan Subbiah, Journal of Food Science, vol. 80, no. 12, 2015, pp. E2803-E2814. (Thanks to Mason Porter for bringing […]
“Which Saint to Pray for Fighting Against a Covid infection? A Short Survey” [by A. Perciaccante, A. Corallic, and P. Charlier, Medicine and Public Health, vol. 18, September 2021, 100674] is one of the studies featured in “Viruses Research Review: Group Sex, Singer, Saint, Count“, which is a featured article in the special Viruses and […]
In Podcast Episode #1091, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public. Jean Berko Gleason encounters: “Hula-Hoop Syndrome,” Zafar H. Zaidi, Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 80, no. 9, May 1, 1959, pp. […]
“A New Species of the Genus Eurytoma Illiger Parasitic on Bees of the Genus Ceratina Latreille (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae and Apoidea)” [by Robert E. Bugbee, Pan-Pacific Entomologist, vol. 42, no. 3, 1966, pp. 210-211.] is the study featured in “May We Recommend: Bugbee on Bugs that Bug Bees“, which is a featured article in the special […]
A new study can fuel old arguments and grievances about how other people should go about parking their cars. The study is: “Parallel Parking Vehicle Alignment Strategies,” Benjy Marks and Emily Moylan, Findings, March 2022. (Thanks to Kurt Verkest for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney, […]
“Group Sex in the Time of COVID: Intimacy, Learning and Community-Building in Sexual Communities During a Pandemic,” Anabelle Bernard Fournier, Karyn Fulcher, Leah Shumka, and Nathan J. Lachowsky, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, , vol. 30, no. 2, August 2021, pp. 278-285.] is one of the studies featured in “Viruses Research Review: Group Sex, […]
“Once I asked him to explain to me, so that I could understand it, why spin-1/2 particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. Gauging his audience perfectly, he said, “I’ll prepare a freshman lecture on it.” But a few days later he came to me and said: “You know, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reduce it to […]
“Handwashing and Detergent Treatment Greatly Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load on Halloween Candy Handled by COVID-19 Patients” [by Rodolfo A. Salido, Sydney C. Morgan, Maria I. Rojas, Celestine G. Magallanes, Clarisse Marotz, Peter DeHoff, Pedro Belda-Ferre, et al., Msystems, vol. 5, no. 6, 2020, e01074-20] is a featured study in “Pandemic Dining: Gelato, Candy, Lettuce, Frozen […]