Business bastards, garlicky men and women, flatulent dogs, and crowded beds, and other things, turn up in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- You bastard. (“You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations,” David Sims, Organization Studies, vol. 26, no. 11, 2005, pp. 1625-40. Featuring dramatic readings by Robin Abrahams (@RobinAbrahams), who writes the Miss Conduct advice column in the Boston Globe.
- Garlic in men and women (Hirsch, Alan R. (2000). ‘Effects of Garlic Bread on Family Interactions.’ Psychosomatic Medicine 62 (1): 103. / Kuettner, E. Bartholomeus, Rolf Hilgenfeld, and Manfred S. Weiss (2002). ‘The Active Principle of Garlic at Atomic Resolution.’ Journal of Biological Chemistry 277 (48): 46402–7. / Thomas, H. F., P. M. Sweetnam, and B. Janchawee (1998). ‘What Sort of Men Take Garlic Preparations?’ Complementary Therapies in Medicine 6: 195–97. Featuring dramatic readings by Andrew Berry, who researches how living things, over time, evolve into new kinds of living things.)
- Flatulence in dogs. (“Flatulence in Pet Dogs,” by B.R. Jones, K.S. Jones, K. Turner, and B. Rogatski, New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 1998 Oct;46(5):191-3. / “Administration of Charcoal, Yucca Schidigera, and Zinc Acetate to Reduce Malodorous Flatulence in dogs,” Catriona J. Giffard, Stella B. Collins, Neil C. Stoodley, Richard F. Butterwick, and Roger M. Batt, The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, vol. 218, no. 6, March 15, 2001, pp. 892-6. . Featuring dramatic readings by Nicole Sharp (@fyfluiddynamics), who created and produces FYFD.)
- Why your doctor should smell. (“Scratch and Sniff. The Dynamic Duo,” W.Z. Stitt and A. Goldsmith, Archives of Dermatology, vol. 131, no. 9, September 1995, pp. 997-9. Featuring dramatic readings by Jean Berko Gleason (@JeanBerkoG), who created The Wug Test.)
- Boys will be boys. (“The Adaptive Function of Masturbation in a Promiscuous African Ground Squirrel,” Jane M. Waterman, PLoS ONE, vol. 5, no. 9, 2010. / “Differences in Breast Shape Preferences Between Plastic Surgeons and Patients Seeking Breast Augmentation,” H.C. Hsia and G.J. Thomson, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, vol. 112, no. 1, July 2003, pp. 312–20. / “Changes in Pornography-Seeking Behaviors Following Political Elections: An Examination of the Challenge Hypothesis,” Patrick M. Markey and Charlotte N. Markey, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 31, no. 6, November 2010, pp. 442–6. Featuring dramatic readings by Chris Cotsapis (@ccots), who researches the biochemical ways the immune system works or doesn’t.)
- You never sleep alone. (Van Bronswijk, J. E. M. H. (1994). ‘A Bed Ecosystem.’ Lecture Abstracts – 1st Benelux Congress of Zoology, Leuven, 4–5 November. / Solarz, Krzysztof (1997). ‘Seasonal Dynamics of House Dust Mite Populations in Bed/Mattress Dust from Two Dwellings in Sosnowiec (Upper Silesia, Poland): An Attempt to Assess Exposure.’ Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine 4: 253–61. / Sesay, H. R., and R. M. Dobson (1972). ‘Studies on the Mite Fauna of House Dust in Scotland with Special Reference to that of Beddings.’ Acarologia 14: pp. 384–92. / “Morphological adaptation for precopulatory guarding in astigmatic mites (Acari: Acaridida),” Wojciech Witaliński, Jacek Dabert and Manfred G. Walzl, International Journal of Acarology, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 49-54. Featuring dramatic readings by Maggie Lettvin, who created and is “The Beautiful Machine“.)
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).