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

November 2014, issue number 2014-11. ISSN 1076-500X.

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The monthly wee little tiny mini update/alert from Improbable Research

      Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

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2014-11-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

2014-11-02 Imminent Events

2014-11-03 In the Magazine: Feathers Now, Ig Nobel Soon

2014-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: D'Arcy Thompson in Empirical Morphospace

2014-11-05 Gift for the Curiously Insatiably Curious Person

2014-11-06 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Limerick Competition

2014-11-07 Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Poet

2014-11-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Names, Lightning, Beer

2014-11-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Pie's Null Morphospace

2014-11-10 Improbable Research Events

2014-11-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)

2014-11-12 — Our Address (*)

2014-11-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2014-11-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

 

      Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

 

 

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2014-11-02 Imminent Events

 

'Science Friday' Ig Nobel radio broadcast     — Nov 28

      DETAILS: <http://www.sciencefriday.com>

 

Belgrade Science Festival, Serbia             — Dec 4-7

 

      Full events schedule at <http://goo.gl/tzwJt>

 

 

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2014-11-03 In the Magazine: Feathers Now, Ig Nobel Soon

 

The next issue of the magazine — the special IG NOBEL issue, will soon be on its way to the printer, and from there to subscribers.

 

Read three articles, online, from the current issue — the special FEATHERS issue <http://goo.gl/eYbYkU>:

"Feathers Research Review" <http://goo.gl/RCS5UZ>

"Improbable Research Review" <http://goo.gl/k4pSs1>

"Improbable Sex" <http://goo.gl/QCyYa0>

 

      Download a FREE E-BOOK ISSUE <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>

      Links to all issues: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>

 

 

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2014-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: D'Arcy Thompson in Empirical Morphospace

 

This month's spotlight finds the scientist who saw mathematical clarity in the shapes of natural objects:

 

"The Spirit of D'Arcy Thompson Dwells in Empirical Morphospace," J.R. Stone, Mathematical Biosciences, vol. 142, no. 1, 1997, pp. 13-30. <http://goo.gl/d6CLMz> The author, at the University of Toronto, writes:

 

"Despite recognizing that it was not 'the only story which Life and her Children have to tell,' Thompson's sole purpose in writing On Growth and Form was "to correlate with mathematical statement and physical law certain of the simpler outward phenomena of organic growth and structure or form." Few have followed directly in his footsteps, but his spirit dwells even today in empirical morphospaces."

 

 

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2014-11-05 Gift for the Curiously Insatiably Curious Person

 

Are you searching for the optimal gift for someone who likes to LAUGH and then THINK — someone who is insatiably curious about surprising things, especially things scientific?

 

If you know and/or love such a person, consider giving that person a gift subscription to the Annals of Improbable Research. The magazine has six new issues (six little gifts!) every year.

 

How to get/give a subscription:

<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

<http://www.improbable.com/subscribe>

 

 

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2014-11-06 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Limerick Competition

 

Morphospace — yup, morphospace! — inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:

 

"The Evolution of Morphospace in Phytophagous Scarab Chafers: No Competition - No Divergence?" Jonas Eberle, Renier Myburgh, Dirk Ahrens, PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 5, epub May 29, 2014, e98536. <http://goo.gl/ScguH1> The authors, at Centre of Taxonomy and Evolutionary Research, Bonn, Germany, the Natural History Museum, London, UK, and the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, report:

 

"The chafer's different feeding types resulted to be not distinguishable in the described morphospace which was largely attributed to large occupancy of the morphospace of some feeding types and to multipleconvergences of feeding behavior (particularly of anthophagy)."

 

Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:

 

      PHYTOPHAGOUS SCARAB CHAFERS MORPHOSPACE LIMERICK COMPETITION

      c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

 

 

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2014-11-07 Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Poet

 

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

 

"Mass Occurrence of Bloodsucking Blackflies in a Regulated River Reach: Localization Of Oviposition Habitat of Simulium Truncatum Using DNA Barcoding," . Brabrand, T. Bremnes, A. G. Koestler, G. Marthinsen, H. Pavels, E. Rindal, J. E. Raastad, S. J. Saltveit, and A. Johnsen, River Research and Applications, vol. 30, no. 5, June 2014, pp. 602–608.

 

The winner is INVESTIGATOR CHRIS HANSEN, who wrote:

 

Damn! Bloodsucking blowflies are pests;

A riverbank's perfect for nests.

  And it's down, in the main

  To the dam and the rain.

Their DNA proves it by tests.

 

Here's the offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

 

To study where flies tend to lay

Their eggs, they inspect DNA.

   There's a dam, they suspect,

   That exerts an effect.

The result of their research: it may.

 

 

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2014-11-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Names, Lightning, Beer

 

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

 

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

 

"John Hoyland, father of "nominative determinism" <http://goo.gl/ABlukJ>

 

"Telephone during a thunder storm: Not recommended" <http://goo.gl/FZekO0>

 

"Further physics of beer froth" <http://www.improbable.com/2014/11/20/further-on-the-physics-of-froth>

 

...and MORE, MORe, MOre, More, more at <http://improbable.com>

 

NEWSPAPER COLUMN (in The Guardian):

<http://www.theguardian.com/education/series/improbableresearch>

 

twitter:    @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

facebook:   <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

books:      <http://goo.gl/rHMb3t>

 

 

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2014-11-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Pie's Null Morphospace

 

"A Null Model of Morphospace Occupation," Marcio R. Pie and Joshua S. Weitz, The American Naturalist 166, no. 1, 2005, pp.  E1-E13. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/430727>

 

 

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2014-11-10 Improbable Research Events

 

For details and additional events, see

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

 

Science Friday Ig Nobel radio broadcast   — Nov 28

Belgrade Science Festival, Serbia         — Dec 4-7

ARISIA, Boston, MA, USA                   — Jan, 2015

Vienna Ball of Sciences, Austria          — Jan, 2015

AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA    — Feb, 2015

Ig Nobel Tour of Scandinavia              — Mar, 2015

Ig Nobel Tour of the UK                   — Mar, 2015

Ig Nobel Events in Japan                  — Jun, 2015

25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep, 2015

 

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2014-11-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)

 

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine. (It's much bigger and better than the little bits in this newsletter.)

We produce each issue as an e-book, as well as on traditional paper.

 

E-BOOKS:

      <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>

      DOWNLOAD A FREE E-BOOK ISSUE: <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>

 

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2014-11-12 — Our Address (*)

 

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA

(+1) 617-491-4437, FAX: (+1) 617-661-0927

 

EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>

Web Site and blog: <http://www.improbable.com>

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

 

 

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2014-11-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

 

Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT distribute mini-AIR for commercial purposes.

 

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

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest Ersatz, Stephen Drew

PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance

AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts

 

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

(c) copyright 2014, Annals of Improbable Research

 

 

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2014-11-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

 

Mini-AIR is a (free!) teeny-tiny monthly *supplement* to the actual six-times-a-year magazine AIR.

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