“Ice Cream Stick Research” (read the article free, here online) is a featured article in the special ICE CREAM issue (volume 28, number 1) of the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research.
“The Third Element” Celebrates the Ig Nobel Prizes
The Croatian TV program “Treći Element” [The Third Element], with its 250th jubilee episode, celebrates the Ig Nobel Prizes: The program describes itself [this is a translation into English]: The 250th jubilee show of the Third Element has a slightly different edition. We gathered all four presenters to tell us about the Ig Nobel Prize […]
See the first (Improbable) Conversation: Cats/Liquids/Language
Join us this Thursday for the premiere of a new kind of conversation: Two researchers, in different fields, explore each other’s worlds a little bit. Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, will compere. Here’s who and what: “(Improbable) Conversation: Physics and Psychology of Cats“, with physicist (and Ig Nobel Prize winner, for […]
Multi-rider vehicle retention apparel [new patent]
“When a passenger rides behind an operator of a motorcycle, the only way to hold on is to wrap the passenger’s arms around the torso of the operator.” What could be done to improve the passenger’s grip? Californian inventor Dale Lafayette Marks has just been awarded a US patent for his Multi-rider vehicle retention apparel […]
Special ICE CREAM issue of Improbable Research
The special ICE CREAM issue (volume 28, number 1) of the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research, has just been sent to subscribers. Among the tasty or tasteless treats in this issue: Ice Cream Research Ice Cream Headaches Ice Cream Impacts Ice Cream Stick Research Medicinal Instances of Ice Cream Ice Cream Multiplicity and Frequency Ice […]
Podcast Episode #1086: “Beards and Face-Punching”
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. We released these lectures one at a time. In Podcast Episode #1086, Marc Abrahams presents the 2020 Ig Nobel Peace Prize […]
A History of Modern Computer Crashing
Steven Sinofsky wrote a good (and long) essay about why and how computers crash less often than they used to. Sinofsky says in part: … In the early days of PCs before Windows, crashes froze the computer—nothing worked, not even banging on the keyboard. The only recourse was to turn the computer off and start over, […]
Inspired by Ig Nobel Prize Winner, China Builds a Rising Moon
The South China Morning Post reports, on January 12, 2022, that “China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth“. The report begins: China has built a research facility that simulates the low-gravity environment on the moon – and it was inspired by experiments using magnets to levitate a frog. Further details: […]
Dramatic Improbable Readings for Arisia 2022
Improbable Research organizes a Dramatic Improbable Readings session at Arisia every year — dramatic readings from published research studies that make people laugh, then think. In 2022, The Covid-19 pandemic led Arisia to cancel the 2022 convention. Undaunted, Improbable Research did and video recorded a new Dramatic Improbable Readings session. Marc Abrahams, editor of the […]
“The Strange World of Breatharianism” documentary
“Breatharianism is a type of belief system started by Jasmuheen… that hypothesizes and claims to prove that humans can live without consuming solid foods…. She even received the Ig Nobel prize, a satirical parody of the true Nobel Prize, which means she joined the likes of L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology and the […]