The leap second that will make this year, 2016, longer than most people will expect — was the subject of an opera that premiered three months ago, as part of the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, at Harvard University. The mini-opera is called “The Last Second“. It’s about a plot to secretly add an extra leap […]
Year: 2016
A newly described illusion – the Pot/Lid Illusion
“The pot is on the stove. The lids are in the drawer. You open the drawer, seeing disordered lids of different sizes, many set nearly vertical to help with drying. You take the one that looks correct: too big! You try again with one that looks one size too small, and— surprise! —it matches the […]
Hank Rawlins joins the Luxuriant Facial Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS)
Hank Rawlins has joined the Luxuriant Facial Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS), a sibling club of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). He says: I am a metallurgical engineer and Technical Director of my own company. Most of my research is for the upstream oil and gas industry. My original goal was to grow a flowing mane, but […]
The Tay Bridge Disaster, remembered on its anniversary
Today, December 28, is the anniversary of the Tay Bridge Disaster — the much marveled-at new railway bridge over the River Tay collapsed during a fierce storm, dooming the passengers on a train. The tragedy is now remembered in connection with the disaster of the poem it inspired. The poem begins: Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry […]
2016 in Hair (Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™)
Here at close of 2016 The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS), and it’s sibling clubs, have collected the year’s new members into its 2016 Members Gallery. Individual members are first announced as they are inducted throughout the year, in the Improbable Blog’s Hair Club section (with one exception this year**), and then collected […]
Medical Usefulness of Tic Tac Toe: A Limitation
The game of tic tac toe is not useful for every medical situation. This paper makes that clear: “Tic-tac-toe does not provide lessons for appreciating the HLA–rheumatoid arthritis relationship: Comment on the editorial by Bridges et al.,” A.H.M. van der Helm-van Mil, T. W. J. Huizinga, R.R.P. de Vries, and R.E.M. Toes, Arthritis and Rheumatism, […]
The Lovejoy Comet (Cock)Tail – a festive recipe
Improbable’s Call for Papers on “The nutritional value of comets” Mini-Annals of Improbable Research, Issue Number 1994-02, June, 1994, is still open. For inspiration with your submissions, what better time is there to prepare a Lovejoy Comet (Cock)Tail? Here is the recipe – inspired by chemical components that are all readily available on Comet Lovejoy […]
Ig Nobel Prize interview on the RT Network
Sophie Shevardnadze interviewed me about the Ig Nobel Prizes, on the RT network’s “Sophie & Co.” program. I had cut myself shaving, that morning, before traveling to the TV studio. In the video here, you can see me bleeding all over Russian TV for a half hour while discussing improbable research with Sophie:
Three Heralds of the Rising Star Plastic World
We live in a Rising Star Plastic world. That’s what the evidence suggests. Here’s the evidence: FIRST. Daniel Y. Maman, MD, [pictured here]: “has been named a ‘Rising Star in Plastic Surgery’ by The New York Times, and he is a regularly featured surgeon on The Plastic Surgery Channel (PSC)”, and “he has lectured to his peers […]
Functional cupcakes: A double helping of research
These two studies are believed to be the first published academic studies of functional cupcakes. Ali Rashad Abdel-Moemin, the author of both papers, is based at Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. What is a functional cupcake? Neither paper defines the phrase. If you know what a functional cupcake is, please spread your knowledge to persons who do […]