Ostriches, sea monsters, and sex figure heavily in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- Improbable Medical Review. (“A Unique Case of Human Ophthalmic Acariasis Caused by Orthohalarachne attenuata (Banks, 1910) (Acari: Halarachnidae),” James P. Webb, Jr., Deane P. Furman, and Samuel Wang, Journal of Parasitology, vol. 71, no. 3, June 1985, pp. 388–9 / “Medical Training as Adventure-Wonder and Adventure-Ordeal: A Dialogical Analysis of Affect-Laden Pedagogy,” Anne Madill and Paul Sullivan, Social Science and Medicine, vol. 71, 2010, pp. 2195–203. Featuring dramatic readings by Richard Baguley.)
- Icky-Cutesy Research Review. (“Flies in the Face of Adversity,” Mark Fellowes and Kerry Hutcheson, The Biologist, vol. 48, no. 2, April 2001, pp. 75–8. / “Try It, You’ll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption, and Revelation on Preferences for Beer,” Leonard Lee, Shane Frederick, and Dan Ariely, Psychological Science, 2006, vol. 17, no. 12. / “Penetrating Eye Injury Caused by a Golf Tee,” Alan Mulvihill, Jane O’Sullivan, and Patricia Logan, British Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 81, 1997, p. 91. Featuring dramatic readings by Maggie Lettvin.)
- Boys Will Be Boys [research by and for teenage boys of all ages and sexes]. (“Chemical Processes in the Deep Interior of Uranus,” Ricky Chau, Sebastien Hamel, William J. Nellis, Nature Communications, vol. 2, no. 2, epub ahead of print, February 22, 2011. / “The Relation Between Sexual Orientation and Penile Size.” Anthony F. Bogaert and Scott Hershberger, Annals of Sexual Behavior, vol. 28, no. 3, 1999, pp. 213–21. / “What Makes Buttocks Beautiful? A Review and Classification of the Determinants of Gluteal Beauty and the Surgical Techniques to Achieve Them,” Ramon Cuenca-Guerra, and Jorge Quezada, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, vol. 28, 2004, pp. 340–7. / “Potty-Talk in Parisian Plays,” Elizabeth K. Menon, Art Journal, vol. 52. no. 3, fall 1993, pp 59–64. / “Sexual Harassment of a King Penguin by an Antarctic Fur Seal,” P.J. Nico de Bruyn, Cheryl A. Tosh, and Marthán N. Bester, Journal of Ethology, vol. 26, no. 2 , May 2008, pp. 295–7. / “Unusual Foreign Body In Urinary Bladder: A Case Report,” G. Vezhaventhan and R. Jeyaraman, Internet Journal of Urology. vol. 4, no. 2, 2007. Featuring dramatic readings by Melissa Franklin.)
- Brain Damage for Gamblers. (“Investment Behavior and the Negative Side of Emotion,” Baba Shiv, George Loewenstein, Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio R. Damasio, Psychological Science, vol. 16, no. 6, June 2005, pp. 435–9. Note: this is a much closer look at something we mentioned a few weeks ago. Featuring dramatic readings by Jean Berko Gleason.)
The mysterious John Schedler perhaps did the sound engineering this week.
The Improbable Research podcast is all about research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK — real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere —research that may be good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. CBS distributes it, both on the new CBS Play.it web site, and on iTunes (and soon, also on Spotify).