If you are a subscriber to our magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), you may be chuckling or grimacing (or both) at the email messages of the past few days. Do not be dismayed, please! Those emails are a side effect of something good, of a weird problem being solved. The PROBLEM: The company we have […]
How much time will a dripped drop of coffee be a drop, before it loses its full-bodied nature? This study sniffs into the question: “On the Lifetime of a Coffee Drop,” Paul Bienvenu, Haruka Hitomi, and David Quéré, Soft Matter, epub 2026. The authors, at PSL Research University, ESPCI-Paris, France, report: As we know, a […]
Upasana Sarraju’s new book called Unruly: The Ig Nobel Prizes and The Science That Refuses to Behave dives into, swims and surfs through a universe (our universe, in fact) full of unexpected science. Published by India Penguin [ISBN 9780143470403], the book’s official debut date is February 28, 2026. Here’s how Sarraju describes the book: After […]
The bursting of bubble wrap, if judiciously done, can help detect whether there is crap (or to put it more nicely: unexpected stuff) inside a pipeline. This new study tells about the problem and the possible, bubble-wrap-bursting way to deal with the problem: “Electric-power free impulse point sound source generation system with bubble wrap bursting […]
Improbable stuff awaits you, if you will be in Phoenix, Arizona this Friday night: AAAS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, Hyatt Regency Phoenix Hotel, in the Regency Ballroom — Improbable Research Show, with Marc Abrahams (founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes) and: Julie Mennella (2025 Ig Nobel Pediatrics Prize winner, for studying what a nursing […]