Almost always, news media race to report a press release that says: _______ cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at _______ However, that didn’t happen with a press release issued on April 17, 2007 by the American Association for Cancer […]
Month: April 2007
Plouf/plop puzzle
The puzzle of the pebble that ‘ploufs’ or ‘plops’ Ever wondered why, sometimes when you throw a stone in a lake you hear ?plouf?, and another time you?ll hear ?plop?? No, neither has this column?s writer. But the phenomenon has clearly troubled some: a group of French researchers has received funding to explain the plouf/plop […]
Tiller-vibration almosts
Here are some runners-up in the Tiller Vibration Competition, announced in mini-AIR 2007-02, to create a limerick based on this research report: “Vibration Characteristics of Walking and Riding Type Power Tillers,” Bini Sam and K. Kathirvel, Biosystems Engineering, vol. 95, no. 4, December 2006, pp. 517-28. Here are those runners-up. Investigator DENNIS MCGRATH: Vibrations encountered […]
Soap news: What’s in, what’s out
Soap dominates the news this week. SOAP NEWS #1: The Los Angeles Times reports. on April 17, 2007:: Drug tests exonerate punk rocker [Don] Bolles, 50, the legendary drummer for the Germs, spent three days in jail after Newport Beach police said they found GHB, the date-rape drug, inside a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Magic […]
Ig winner acquitted on 23 of 42 charges
Joe Nacchio, a former AT&T executive tapped to transform Qwest Communications into a major telecommunications competitor, was convicted Thursday of 19 of 42 insider trading charges… So says an April 19, 2007 Associated Press report. Mr. Nachio shared the 2002 Ig Nobel Economics Prize with all the other executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, […]
Professor Doughnut
Doughnuts fuelled Steve Penfold‘s rise to a professorship…. So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.
Egg peeling in a trice (video)
There are many ways to peel an egg. It is analogous, in that way at least, to skinning a cat. The hydraulic method is satisfying, as demonstrated in a quick video. Another video, made by a different person, shows a more traditional way to peel an egg quickly. Yet another video, done by this same […]
Why science dominates the headlines
A major advantage of this approach over the more traditional survey based news stories, is that the results tend to be not only dramatic and newsworthy but also visually exciting, giving the project a far greater chance of obtaining television coverage…. If you would be like to discover how we could help provide the *science* […]
Scientists now know: A taste for color
More than meets the tongue The color of a drink can fool the taste buds into thinking it is sweeter Does orange juice taste sweeter if it’s a brighter orange? A new study in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research finds that the color of a drink can influence how we think […]
Bureaucracy Club: Too good at ethics
Who would have thought that doing too well on a test could get you in trouble? Certainly not Tony Williams. After passing a new online test on ethics required of all state employees, the tenured professor in the English department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale received a notice from his university ethics officer and […]