The Pew Research Center announced — in large, bold type — their apparently surprising new research finding: Texting Is Nearly Universal Among Young Adult Cell Phone Owners The vast majority of cell phone owners send and receive text messages. Large numbers of cell owners across all demographic groups do so, with the exception of mobile […]
Year: 2012
Physiology: Why Rudolph’s Nose is Red
A new Dutch study explains the likely physiology of Rudolph the reindeer’s red nose: “Microcirculatory investigations of nasal mucosa in reindeer Rangifer tarandus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae): Rudolph’s nose was overheated,” Ben van der Hoven, Eva Klijn, Michel van Genderen, Willem Schaftenaar, Lisette L. de Vogel, Ditty van Duijn and Erwin J.O. Kompanje (a member of the […]
Wordplay proves a fruitful area for research
Words, words, words are the bread, butter, salt, pepper, meat and potatoes of a small, US-based magazine called Word Ways that has been coming out four times a year since 1968. Dmitri Borgmann, the founding editor, described it as “the journal of recreational linguistics”. Its essence, in a word: wordplay. Borgmann’s obituary, in a 1985 issue of Word […]
Unexpected appearance of a banana in a chemical structure
This study introduces a banana into the diagram of a chemical structure: “1,3-Bis(nitroimido)-1,2,3-triazolate Anion, the N-Nitroimide Moiety, and the Strategy of Alternating Positive and Negative Charges in the Design of Energetic Materials,” Thomas M. Klapötke, Christian Petermayer, Davin G. Piercey, and Jörg Stierstorfer, Journal of the American Chemical Society, epub November 28, 2012. The authors, […]