The real-life Wizard of Oz, artificial fruit processing in children and chimps, and other things, turn up in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- The real-life Wizard of Oz. (Dr. Nakamats / Dr. Nakamats’s upcoming Final Birthday Party / Swedish interview with Dr. Nakamats about his patent for a self-defense wig / Dr. Nakamats medical news announcement. Featuring dramatic readings by Robin Abrahams (@RobinAbrahams), who writes the Miss Conduct advice column in the Boston Globe. Here’s a teaser from the documentary “The Invention of Dr. Nakamats“:
- Artificial fruit processing in children and chimpanzees (“Imitative learning of artificial fruit processing in children (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes),” A. Whiten, D.M. Custance, J.C. Gomez, P. Teixidor P, and K.A. Bard, Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol. 110, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 3-14. Featuring dramatic readings byby Nicole Sharp (@fyfluiddynamics), who created and produces FYFD.)
- Soft Is Hard. (“The Physical Burdens of Secrecy,” M.L. Slepian, E.J. Masicampo, N.R. Toosi, and N. Ambady, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 141, 2012, pp. 619–24. / “Big Secrets Do Not Necessarily Cause Hills to Appear Steeper,” Etienne P. LeBel and Christopher J. Wilbur, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 21(3), 2014, 696-700. / “Passing Encounters: Patterns of Recognition and Avoidance in Pedestrians,” Miles L. Patterson, A. Webb, and W. Schwartz, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, vol. 24, 2002, pp. 57–66. / “Through a Glass Darkly: Effects of Smiling and Visibility on Recognition and Avoidance in Passing Encounters,” Miles L. Patterson and Mark E. Tubbs, Western Journal of Communication, vol. 69, no. 3, July 2005, pp. 219–31. Featuring dramatic readings by Bill Hoston, who teaches physics and drinks coffee.)
- What you can do with a cat, a cow, and a bag. (Ely, Fordyce, and W. E. Petersen (1941). ‘Factors Involved in the Ejection of Milk.’ Journal of Dairy Science 3: 211–23. / May, D. N. (1971). ‘Startle in the Presence of Background Noise.’ Journal of Sound and Vibration 17 (1): 77–78. / Lukas, Jerome. S. (1972). ‘Awakening Effects of Simulated Sonic Booms and Aircraft Noise on Men and Women.’ Journal of Sound and Vibration 20 (4): 457–66. / Rylander, R., S. Sörensen, and K. Berglund (1972). ‘Sonic Boom Effects on Sleep: A Field Experiment on Military and Civilian Populations.’ Journal of Sound and Vibration 24 (1): 41–50. Featuring dramatic readings by Maggie Lettvin, who created and is “The Beautiful Machine“.)
- The Swan Song of Dr. Nakamats. (Swedish public television broadcast of Dr. Nakamats performing the song in Stockholm, the day after the train ride you hear in the podcast.)
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).