Messes, burglars, cheese, spaghetti, and bugs (and other things) turn up in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- Where do messes come from. (“Disorganization Theory and Disorganizational Behavior: Towards an Etiology of Messes,” Eric Abrahamson, Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 24, 2002, pp. 139–80. / Etiology. / Featuring dramatic readings by James Harkin (@eggshaped), who researches and performs at QI, the Museum of Curiosity, and No Such Thing As a Fish.) Here is a photo (by Luca Masters, via Wikimedia) of a mess:
- The Messy Desk Effect (“The Messy Desk Effect — How Tidiness Affects the Perception of Others,” Sarah Sitton, Journal Of Psychology, vol. 117, no. 2, 1984, pp. 263-7. Featuring dramatic readings by Nicole Sharp (@fyfluiddynamics), who created and produces FYFD.)
- Soft Is Hard. (“Interacting with Women Can Impair Men’s Cognitive Functioning,” Johan C. Karremans, Thijs Verwijmeren, Tila M. Pronk, and Meyke Reitsma, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 45, no. 4, 2009. / “Inhibitory Spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains,” Mirjam A. Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop, Psychological Science 22, no. 5 (2011): 627-633. / “I 5683 You: Dialing Phone Numbers on Cell Phones Activates Key-Concordant Concepts,” Sascha Topolinski, Psychological Science, epub before print, January 26, 2011. / “I Can’t Believe This Isn’t Wood! An Investigation in the Perception of Naturalness,” Krista E. Overvliet and Salvador Soto-Faraco, Acta Psychologica, vol. 136, no. 1, January 2011, pp. 95–111. / “The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters,” Dr. Sara Gwenllian Jones, Screen, vol. 43 no. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 79–90. / “Collective Behavior in Road Crossing Pedestrians: The Role of Social Information,” Jolyon J. Faria, Stefan Krause, and Jens Krause, Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21, no. 6, 2010, pp. 1236-42. Featuring dramatic readings by Daniel Rosenberg, who demonstrates chemistry and physics)
- The burgler and the cheesy toothmark. (“Saliva from Cheese Bite Yields DNA Profile of Burglar: A Case Report,” D. Sweet and D. Hildebrand, International Journal of Legal Medicine, vol. 112, no. 3, 1999, pp. 201–3.). Featuring dramatic readings by Corky White (@merrycorkywhite), who studies food and people.)
- Why spaghetti. (“Localization of Breakage Points in Knotted Strings,” Piotr Pieranski, Sandor Kasas, Giovanni Dietler, Jacques Dubochet, and Andrzej Stasiak, New Journal of Physics, vol. 3, June 2001, p. 1-13). Featuring dramatic readings by Ben Lillie (@BenLillie), co-creator of The Story Collider.)
- What matters in NBA games. (“Safe Leads and Lead Changes in Competitive Team Sports,” Aaron Clauset, M. Kogan, and S. Redner, arXiv:1503.03509v1, 11 Mar 2015.). Featuring dramatic readings by Jean Berko Gleason (@JeanBerkoG), who created The Wug Test.)
- Infestigations that Bug a person. (Hurd, Paul D., Jr (1954). ‘“Myiasis” Resulting from the Use of the Aspirator Method in the Collection of Insects.’ Science 119 (3101): 814–15. / “Condom barrier in a mouth‐operated aspirator prevents inhalation of debris when handling small insects,” Yinshan Tang, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, vol. 10, no. 3, 1996, pp. 288-290.). Featuring dramatic readings by Daniel Rosenberg.)
- Weezers. (“Criteria for Deciding When to Obtain Chest Radiographs in First Time Wheezers,” J. Gershel, Pediatric Emergency Care, volume 14, no. 6, December 1998, p. 452. / “An Offbeat Wheezer,” E.R., Alpern and M.W. Stevens, Pediatric Annals, vol. 29, no. 2, February 2000, pp. 97-101. / “The Wheezer that Wasn’t,” J.I Singer, et al., Pediatric Emergency Care, vol. 8, no. 2, April 1992, pp. 107-9. / “Chronic Wheezers. Treat and What the Hell!” G.M. Cochrane, The European Respiratory Journal, 1990 vol. 3, no. 9, October 1990, pp. 1094-6). Featuring dramatic readings by Nicole Sharp.)
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).