Become one of life’s ultimate insiders! In PARASITES UNLEASHED! you control a wily parasite, racing to complete your life cycle, mate, and lay eggs before your opponents. Do all the entertainingly gross things real parasites do — bore into vital organs, hide inside a blood cell, hitch a ride inside a mosquito, even take over […]
Month: December 2006
Hair-lowering suggestion
Investigator Kristina McCormack writes: This may not meet the technical requirements for a formal Nomination to the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists, but I believe it merits further inquiry on behalf of that noble institution. Perhaps an honorary membership is in order, at least. From an article by Space.com: Astronaut Cuts Her Hair in […]
Superhero and other bodies, compared numerically
This study compares the mean and normalised distribution of the Body Mass Index of women and men in the Marvel Universe, and with women and men in the “real” world. So reads the abstract of a study published online: “Comparative Sex-Specific Body Mass Index in the Marvel Universe and the “Real” World,” by Karen Healey […]
Black hoof, white hoof: fixation
Horseshoe Fixation versus Hoof Colour, a Comparative Study, by five scientists at the University of Guelph, in Canada, digs deep into an old question. Some horses have white hooves, some have black, some have an assortment. Which colour holds horseshoes most reliably? Professor RJ Runcimen and his colleagues write: “In an application that is as […]
Too heady an experience: sex
Investigator Machiel Stolk writes: The research of the famous Gert Holstege has reached another climax! Recently, a Dutch national newspaper [de Volkskrant] reported that Holstege has scientifically proved that “women lose control when they are having an orgasm”. Holstege used his favorite research instrument, the PET scan, to investigate women?s brain activity during an orgasm. […]
Compressed, yet exploding, history
The history of religion in 90 seconds. The imperial history of the Middle East in 90 seconds. These and more, in exploding color, with appropriately quasi-pseudo-logarithmic time scales, are part of the Maps of War web site. They pull off in three dimensions the kind of info-clarification that Edward Tufte is famed for doing in […]
Whipping (with whips) up enthusiasm
Whipping therapy cures depression and suicide crises Russian scientists from the city of Novosibirsk, Siberia, made a sensational report at the international conference devoted to new methods of treatment and rehabilitation in narcology. The report was called ‘Methods of painful impact to treat addictive behavior.’ Siberian scientists believe that addiction to alcohol and narcotics, as […]
In re whale vomit
“The older folks would always tell us, ‘Keep your eyes open for that whale vomit because it?ll pay your way through college,’ ” he recalled. “We used to bring home anything that we thought looked like it, but it never turned out to be ambergris. The average person today could trip over it on the […]
Fruit/time
Time for fruit? Or fruit for time? If you opt for the latter, consider buying a fruit-powered clock. (Thanks to investigator Raylene Nardo for bringing this to our attention.)
December mini-AIR
The December issue of mini-AIR just went out. It’s stuffed full of new professor-professors, and touches on each of the following topics: Kidney Calculus, Herrlinger the Olfactory Eavesdropping Poet, two Murphy’s List crashes, Targeted Interpretation, acoustics for particular dummies, cockroach status, and Bacon on toast.(If you would like to have mini-AIR automatically sent to your […]