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

February 2015, issue number 2015-02. 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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2015-02-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2015-02-02 Imminent Events

2015-02-03 In the Magazine: Teeth on the Loose

2015-02-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: The Fake Food Buffet

2015-02-05 Improbable Research Shows in California, and in Europe

2015-02-06 Announcing... the Improbable Research Podcast

2015-02-07 Orange Juice Fraud Spectroscopy Limerick Competition

2015-02-08 Hole and Crack Poet

2015-02-09 MORE IMPROBABLE: Not As Bad, Ball, Pitts

2015-02-10 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Raw Materials for Making Fake Food

2015-02-12 Improbable Research Events

2015-02-13 — How to Get the Magazine (*)

2015-02-14 — Our Address (*)

2015-02-15 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2015-02-16 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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2015-02-02 Imminent Events

· Nueva School, Hillsborough, CA, USA — Feb 12, 2015

· AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA — Feb 14, 2015

· Premiere of Improbable Research weekly podcast — March, 2015

· UK, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden — Mar 12-30, 2015

DETAILS: <http://goo.gl/SEMgnw>

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2015-02-03 In the Magazine: Teeth on the Loose

The special TEETH issue of the magazine has just gone to the printer, and will fairly soon be biting subscribers where they live.

Parts of the special IG NOBEL issue are online at <http://goo.gl/eLEruh>

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

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

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2015-02-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: The Fake Food Buffet

This month's spotlight shines on fake food:

"The fake food buffet – a new method in nutrition behaviour research," T. Bucher, K. van der Horst and M. Siegrist, British Journal of Nutrition, vol. 107, no. 10, May 2012, pp. 1553-1560. The authors, at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, report:

"A total of fifty-seven people were invited on two separate occasions with an interval of 2 weeks to serve themselves a meal from a fake food buffet (FFB) containing replica carrots, beans, pasta and chicken. The external validity of the FFB was assessed in a second study by comparing meals served from replica foods (beans, pasta, chicken) with meals served from a corresponding real food buffet (RFB).... The amounts of food items served and (theoretical) energy content were compared. Correlation coefficients between the amounts of fake foods served were 0·77 (95 % CI 0·68, 0·86) for chicken, 0·79 (95 % CI 0·68, 0·87) for carrots, 0·81 (95 % CI 0·69, 0·89) for beans and 0·89 (95 % CI 0·82, 0·93) for pasta." <http://goo.gl/0g9C1J>

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2015-02-05 Improbable Research Shows in California, and in Europe

Come see the Improbable Research shows in California (on February 14, at the AAAS meeting in SAN JOSE) and Europe (in March — in LONDON, PORTSMOUTH, NOTTINGHAM, LONDON, BRUSSELS, AARHUS, COPENHAGEN, and STOCKHOLM).

Shows will have different mixes of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers. The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club Woman and Man of the Year each will appear at one show (the one at the AAAS meeting, the other at Imperial College London). Dr. NakaMats, perhaps the Greatest Man in the World, will be making farewell appearances in the UK, Denmark, and Sweden. QI elves will emote in the two London shows. Garden snails will be thrown over the fence. Cats, dogs, reindeer, polar bears, scrotal asymmetry, swearing, late-night psychopathy, Nominative Determinism, woodpecker brains, randomness — all will figure into things, in particular places. There will be a muchness.

Burgeoning details (including ticket info for most of the Europe shows) are at <http://goo.gl/SEMgnw>

Please spread the word!

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2015-02-06 Announcing... the Improbable Research Podcast

We are birthing, raising, and adventuring with a weekly podcast, for your delight and (who knows?) possible benefit. Hoorah!

Every week, our podcast will bring improbable research, people, and whatnot into your ear, if you let it.

CBS will distribute the podcast.

It starts in March.

Details will appear here, and on our web site, <www.IMPROBABLE.com>, and lots of other places.

On this, too, please spread the word!

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2015-02-07 Orange Juice Fraud Spectroscopy Limerick Competition

Orange juice and fraud inspire this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:

"Detection of Orange Juice Frauds Using Front-Face Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Independent Components Analysis," Food Chemistry, vol. 168, February 1, 2015, pp. 211–217. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) <http://goo.gl/9As4z5>

Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:

ORANGE JUICE FRAUD SPECTROSCOPY LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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2015-02-08 Hole and Crack Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Hole and Crack Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Study on the Element with the Hole and Crack," Qiang Xu, Jian-yun Chen, Jing Li, Gang Xu, Acta Mechanica, July 2014, vol. 225, no. 7, pp. 1915-1930. <http://goo.gl/PuEhVA>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR JOSEPHINUS FRISCH, who wrote:

For emptiness there are no lacks,

Inside of the holes or the cracks.

I say, "Tut, tut, tut!"

Let's calculate what

Is absent inside catarac[t]s.

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

The authors are very attentive

To gaps. Their approach is inventive.

Their research's goal's

To describe cracks and holes.

Are they being, though, anal retentive?

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2015-02-09 MORE IMPROBABLE: Not As Bad, Ball, Pitts

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

· "Not as bad as you think… [a possibly cheerful collection of same]" <http://goo.gl/gwxan7>

· "A 24/7 lecture for the Vienna Ball of Sciences" <http://goo.gl/3qwKeB>

· "The wondrous Walter Pitts and his friends and collaborators" <http://goo.gl/c9ory0>

New members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Clubs for Scientists (LFHCfS):

· Samuel Flaxman <http://goo.gl/skQFM2>

...AND LOTS MORE, at

[blog] <www.IMPROBABLE.com>

[twitter] @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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

[podcast] The weekly podcast will begin in March, 2015.

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2015-02-10 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Raw Materials for Making Fake Food

"Fractionation of Vegetable Raw Materials for Manufacturing of Fake Food, Technical Raw Materials and Energy Sources," Michael Menner, K. Muller, Claudia Pickardt, and Peter Eisner, Chemie Ingenieur Technik, vol. 81, no. 11, 2009, pp. 1743-1756. <http://goo.gl/FVMg3O>

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2015-02-11 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

Nueva School, Hillsborough, CA — Feb 12, 2015

AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA — Feb 14, 2015

Premiere of Improb Res weekly podcast — March, 2015

Ig Nobel Tour of Europe — Mar 12-30, 2015

San Antonio, TX — Apr 27, 2015

Ig Nobel Events in Japan — Jun, 2015

25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 17, 2015

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 19, 2015

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2015-02-12 — 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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or send in this form:

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2015-02-13 — 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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2015-02-14 — 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 2015, Annals of Improbable Research

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2015-02-15 — 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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