This April, 2024, the Ig Nobel EuroTour will spring to life after several years of hibernation (the hibernation was caused by the Covid pandemic). It’s all about research (and researchers) that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Events are scheduled in GERMANY, DENMARK, SWITZERLAND, and ITALY. Details are on our coming events page. And more? If […]
The special Ants issue of the magazine (volume 30, number 2) has just gone out to subscribers. It’s got copious details about ants and ants research and ant researchers. And more. Lotsa stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. The magazine is in PDF format. You can buy a copy, or buy a subscription.
“Magpies swoop bald men more often, eight-year-old’s viral survey finds,” says an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report. Some years ago, Australia’s Department for Environment and Water offered this advice: “Magpie swooping season is here! Find out why they swoop and how you can try and avoid them”. And this suggestion: “Carry an open umbrella above your […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Time for love — Valentine’s Day celebrates coupling. Alan McWilliam tells Feedback about an offer he received, before the most recent Valentine’s Day, from a US-based biotechnology company. It couples charm with other qualities. Alan says: “I […]
Birders, heed David Sibley‘s improbable advice about how to identify rare birds: If you think that you, of all people, have found a rare bird, ask yourself the following questions: Is this identification correct? Can you think of even one explanation that works as well or better to explain what you have seen? Do the […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Intentional cattiness — When cats are forced to endure a crush of mass attention from an adoring public, do they continue to behave in their famous, endearing, imperious “cat-like” ways? Simona Cannas and her colleagues at the […]
Two Ig Nobel Prize winners and some of their colleagues collaborated in a discovery about how some whales are able to communicate. A report from the University of Southern Denmark announces it: Baleen whales evolved a unique larynx to communicate but cannot escape human noise Baleen whales are the largest animals to have ever roamed […]
Discrete Mathematics with Ducks is a textbook about discrete mathematics and ducks: Discrete Mathematics with Ducks (second edition), by Sarah-Marie Belcastro, ISBN 9780367570705, 700 Pages, published June 30, 2020 by Chapman & Hall. (Mostly) unrelated: “How a dead duck changed my life”:
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has six segments. Here are bits of each of them: Sweet or not, the end — Almost everyone who gets old dies. In a gross way, that brief sentence could sum up a Dutch/Danish/British study called “Use of sugar in coffee and tea and long-term risk of […]
This photo shows the performers in the Improbable Dramatic Readings session we (Improbable Research) did at Boskone (the scifi convention in Boston, Massachusetts), on February 10, 2024. The performers include: Sara Dion, James Bacon, Geri Sullivan, Roksi Freeman, Amy Kucharik, Robin Abrahams, Gary Dryfoos, and three timekeepers. The event was emceed by Marc Abrahams, with […]