Sufficiently small animals cannot be hurt in a fall from any height: A monkey is too big, a squirrel is on the edge, but a mouse is completely safe. The mouse-sized people in Dr. Cyclops could have leapt off the tabletop with a cry of “Geronimo!” secure in the knowledge that they were too small […]
Month: October 2006
Canada’s fascination with Dasani
Why is Dasani – the British bottlers of which were honored with the 2004 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize — now on the lips of so many Canadians, in name if not in substance? Perhaps it has to do with the combination of this July 17, 2006 headline in the Toronto Globe and Mail: Dasani, IPO […]
Correction question
Investigator Chris McManus writes: How’s this for a correction from this week’s Nature? All that number of authors and they still managed to leave 13 off… And can those thirteen be authors of the correction saying, “We inadvertently omitted the names of the following authors”. Is it possible to inadvertently omit one’s own name from […]
Mankind’s greatest achievements
Philosopher-Accountant James Mahoney writes: I used to think that mankind’s greatest achievements were narcotic pain relief (physical pain is horrible) and air conditioning (being cool and dry when it’s hot and humid is wonderful). Now I’m starting to think it’s the modern supermarket. What do you think? UPDATE: Investigator Robert Bendesky responds: In 1976, Viktor […]
To choose upon a star
(Research has shown that) if women could choose who they’d like to be impregnated by, they’d choose a rock star. So says Daniel Levitin, musician and associate professor who holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communication at McGill University, in an August 23, 2006 interview Wired News interview. (Thanks to investigator Jim […]
More pricks than kicks
How do porcupines make love? Wendy Cooper discovered the answer while poking around the basement of the Australian National University library in Canberra about five years ago. Cooper is a parasitologist. She studies parasites, not porcupines. She also, in the course of her work, studies scientific journals. That was how she acquired her professional knowledge […]
Further chewing on pelican news
Investigator Steve Smith writes: There’s an update from the BBC [on October 25, 2006] on the pigeon eating pelican: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6083468.stm From the date, it’s unclear whether this could be the same bird or incident seen in the video (but the pelican in the video looks more like an Eastern white than an American white to […]
Legal cursing in Athens
Question: What kinds of curses do you find in the Athenian tablets? Answer: … A lot of them have to do with legal cases. They say things like, “Bind the tongue and the thoughts of so-and-so, who is about to testify against me on Monday.” We have some that are aimed at rival musicians or […]
For puzzling conversations
It took Mary Louise Parker five years to obtain the patent (U.S. #7,093,832) for her Conversation Generator. The application, filed on August 9, 2001, was granted on August 22, 2006. The device is, officially, “a plate or other utilitarian object for generating conversations.” (Thanks to investigator Martin Gardiner for bringing this to our attention.)
Improbable Research shows in Illinois
If you’re near Champaign, Illinois, come to the Improbable Research show on Wednesday, October 25, at 3:00 pm at the Beckman Institute. It will feature Ig Nobel Prize winners Dan Simons (attention and gorilla suits) and Theo Gray (the periodic table table) , and Ig Nobel winner George Goble’s colleague Joe Cychosz (the world’s quickest […]