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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

Issue number 2008-02

February 2008

ISSN 1076-500X

Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the

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A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

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2008-02-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2008-02-02 Imminent Events

2008-02-03 What's New in the Magazine

2008-02-04 NGF and the Chemistry of Rapid Love

2008-02-05 AIR show Friday Night at AAAS

2008-02-06 Lovelady and Little Hans on Valentine's Day

2008-02-07 2008 Ig Nobel UK Tour tickets now available

2008-02-08 Plovers Poet Picked

2008-02-09 Side-Scan Steep-Slope Sonographs Competition

2008-02-10 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Gallup On: Kisses

2008-02-11 BLOGLIGHTS: Pretzel Goes, Answers Answered

2008-02-12 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Depressors and Bachelors

2008-02-13 Improbable Research Events

2008-02-14 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)

2008-02-15 -- Our Address (*)

2008-02-16 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2008-02-17 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

mini-AIR is

a free monthly *e-supplement* to the print magazine

Annals of Improbable Research

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2008-02-02 Imminent Events

AAAS Improbable Session Friday, Feb 15, 2008

Details: see below, section 2008-02-05

2008 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK March 7-16, 2008

Details: see below, section 2008-02-07

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2008-02-03 What's New in the Magazine

The entire magazine -- the Annals of Improbable Research -- is

now online for free for all. Open access, open access, we repeat.

The January/February 2008 issue (vol. 14, no. 1,) is a special

Reclassification/Renaming issue. Read it online (in HTML and PDF

versions) at <http://tinyurl.com/yo5syo>.

Highlights include:

* * *

"Puzzling Solutions," by Emil Filterbag, reveals the final cut-

fold-and-join steps to complete the transformation of Robert

Hooke's drawing of a flea into a working replica of James Watt's

steam engine.

<http://tinyurl.com/yo5syo>

"Icky Cutesy Research Review," compiled by Alice Shirrell

Kaswell, gives a new helping of research reports that are icky

and/or cutesy.

<http://tinyurl.com/yo5syo>

* * *

This and past issues are at <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

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2008-02-04 NGF and the Chemistry of Rapid Love

Is nerve growth factor (NGF) a key to love?

A research study from the University of Pavia builds on the

romantically triumphant work of 2000 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize-winners

Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano and

Hagop S. Akiskal, who looked mainly at substances other than NGF.

The NGF study was published in 2006. Now, on Valentine's Day 2008, it

has the potential to stimulate scholarly or drug-loving lovers. The

study is:

"Raised Plasma Nerve Growth Factor Levels Associated with Early-Stage

Romantic Love," Enzo Emanuelea, Pierluigi Politib, Marika Bianchia,

Piercarlo Minorettia, Marco Bertonaa and Diego Geroldia,

Psychoneuroendocrinology, vol. 31, no. 3, April 2006, pp. 288-94.

(Thanks to Julia Lunetta for bringing it to our attention.) The

authors, report:

"Our current knowledge of the neurobiology of romantic love remains

scanty. In view of the complexity of a sentiment like love, it would

not be surprising that a diversity of biochemical mechanisms could be

involved in the mood changes of the initial stage of a romance. In the

present study, we have examined whether the early romantic phase of a

loving relationship could be associated with alterations in circulating

levels of neurotrophins (NTs). Plasma levels of NGF, BDNF, NT-3 and NT-

4 were measured in a total of 58 subjects who had recently fallen in

love and compared with those of two control groups, consisting of

subjects who were either single or were already engaged in a long-

lasting relationship. NGF level was significantly higher in the

subjects in love... there was also a significant positive correlation

between levels of NGF and the intensity of romantic love as assessed

with the passionate love scale."

Lead author Enzo Emmanuel identifies himself as a conceivably

supernatural creature - a "medical ghostwriter." See his mug shot at

<http://www.vetscite.org/publish/items/003911/index.html>

The study is at: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.09.002>

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2008-02-05 AIR show Friday Night at AAAS

The annual Improbable Research session will happen on Friday

Night, February 15, at 8:00 pm. at the AAAS Annual Meeting, at

the Sheraton Boston Hotel's Republic A room.

Topics include:

<> Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away and hides repeatedly

<> The Museum of Burnt Food

<> "Just How Many Holy Grails of Science Are There?"

<> The discovery of how to extract vanillin from cow dung - and

applications of this for making delicious ice cream

<> "Technical Secrets of the Ig Nobel Ceremony"

<> The Great Boston Molasses Flood

<> A technical analysis of the music of P.D.Q. Bach.

Eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo will help ensure that all the talks are

delightfully brief.

The event is open to the public, for free. Seating is limited, so come

a little early.

Details (and a downloadable handbill): <http://tinyurl.com/k87xs>.

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2008-02-06 Lovelady and Little Hans on Valentine's Day

Investigator Lee B. Lovelady sent us a lengthy note, of which one

run-on sentence is pertinent to Valentine's Day. Lovelady writes:

"But that's not the usual thing that happens to us scientific

Loveladys, oh no - we get calls from reporters every time a

Lovelady publishes a study that has anything to do with love or

with ladies, and maybe only you would believe the range of things

some of those other Loveladys (not to mention the people named

Lovelass, and one named Lovelassie) have studied - here's one of

my favorites."

The study is:

"Castration Anxiety and Phobias," R. Cogan, L.K. Larrabee, I.M.

Wyatt, A. Ontiberoz, SK.. Waters, M.L. Werner, A.L. Miller, A.C.

Lovelady, T.J. Hurt, E.D. Hardin, 3rd, and P.M. Gonzalez,

Psychological Reports, vol. 91, no. 3, part 2, December 2002, pp.

1244-6. The authors, who are at Texas Tech University, Lubbock,

Texas, explain that:

"Based on Freud's case study of "Little Hans," the authors tested

the hypothesis that men with phobias would score higher on

castration anxiety than men without phobias.... Men with high

scores on the Fears Scale had higher scores on castration anxiety

than men with average scores on the Fears Scale. The findings are

consistent with Freud's hypothesis about phobias."

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2008-02-07 2008 Ig Nobel UK Tour tickets now available

The sixth annual Ig Nobel Tour of the UK (for National Science &

Engineering Week) will happen in March, with shows in Oxford,

Newcastle and London.

For details (and to reserve free tickets), see:

<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/ig-uk-tour/

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2008-02-08 Plovers Poet Picked

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Dove-on-Plovers

Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the study

"Quantification of Microscopic Feather Characters Used in the

Identification of North American Plovers," Carla J. Dove, Condor,

vol. 99, 1997, pp. 47-57.

<http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1370223>

The winner (who reminds us that the key word is pronounced "PLUV-

ers") and her poeticalistications are:

INVESTIGATOR JOANNE LEARY:

The classification of plovers

Is tricky, as one soon discovers.

The marks on a feather

Will indicate whether

It's one kind of bird, or another.

AND HERE IS THE ASSESSMENT FROM LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:

A feather with magnification

Provides full identification.

What species of plover

Is yours to discover.

Ms. Dove gives a full explanation.

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2008-02-09 Side-Scan Steep-Slope Sonographs Competition

Side-Scan Steep-Slope Sonography is the subject of this month's

limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that

illuminates the nature of this report:

* * *

"Side-Scan Sonographs of Steep Slopes in the Wushieh Reservoir,"

G.S. Song, International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 28, no.

8, January 2007, pp. 1857-71. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing

this to our attention.)

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01431160600935612>

* * *

RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that your

poem is in classic, trips-off-the-tongue limerick form.

PRIZE: The winning poet will receive a (if we manage to send it

to the correct address) a free, possibly side-scanned issue of

the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per

entrant) to:

SIDE-SCAN STEEP-SLOPE LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>

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2008-02-10 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Gallup On: Kisses

"Sex Differences in Romantic Kissing Among College Students: An

Evolutionary Perspective," Susan M. Hughes, Marissa A. Harrison,

and Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., Evolutionary Psychology, vol. 5, no.

3, 2007, pp. 612-31. The authors report:

"This study provides a descriptive account of kissing behavior in

a large sample of undergraduate college students and considers

kissing in the context of both short-term and long-term mating

relationships.... A total 1,041 college students completed one of

three questionnaires measuring kissing preferences, attitudes,

styles, and behaviors. Results showed that females place more

importance on kissing as a mate assessment device and as a means

of initiating, maintaining, and monitoring the current status of

their relationship with a long-term partner. In contrast, males

place less importance on kissing, especially with short-term

partners, and appear to use kissing to increase the likelihood of

having sex."

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2008-02-11 BLOGLIGHTS: Pretzel Goes, Answers Answered

Here are some recent topics in our blog:

<> Retirement of a pretzel

<> Ig Nobel Peace Prize device under attack

<> Physics breakthrough: The sixth dimension

<> Psychopaths: Technical difficulties

<> Answers about Answers

and some from the newspaper column in The Guardian:

<> World's fastest author

<> The administration of chairs, literally

... and others

Read the blog

every day at <http://www.improbable.com>

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2008-02-12 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Depressors and Bachelors

ENLIGHTENMENT BY DEPRESSOR

"Slide Show Saved By Tongue Depressor," D.I. Astrachan, New

England Journal of Medicine, vol. 320, no. 24, June 15, 1989, p.

1629.

BACHELOR PHYSICS

"The Marriage Problem and the Fate of Bachelors," Th.M.

Nieuwenhuizen, Physica A, vol. 252, 1998, pp. 178-98. (Thanks to

Henryk Gutmann for bringing this to our attention.)

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4371(97)00623-7>

The author explains that:

"Minimization of a global cost function (Hamiltonian) is

performed with statistical mechanics techniques at a finite

fictious temperature. The problem is generalized to include

bachelors, needed in particular when the groups (of males &

females) have different size, and polygamy. Exact solutions are

found for the optimal solution (T=0)..."

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2008-02-13 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>

AAAS ANNUAL MEETING, BOSTON -- FEB 15, 2008

IG NOBEL UK TOUR -- MAR 6-16, 2008

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY (ASMS) ANNUAL CONFERENCE,

DENVER -- JUN 1, 2008

CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL, UK -- JUN 7, 2008

DFG ANNUAL ASSEMBLY, BERLIN, GERMANY -- JUL 1, 2008

IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY -- OCT 2, 2008

IG INFORMAL LECTURES -- OCT 4, 2008

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2008-02-14 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)

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2008-02-15 -- Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA

617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927

EDITORIAL: marca AT chem2.harvard.edu

SUBSCRIPTIONS: air AT improbable.com

WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>

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2008-02-16 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever

appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that

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------------- mini-AIRheads -------------

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams

MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last

few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson

COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen

ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne

PSYCHOLOGY EDITOR: Robin Abrahams

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest

Ersatz, S. Drew

MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto

AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon

Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts

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2008-02-17 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

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