mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
August 2016, issue number 2016-08. ISSN 1076-500X.
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
A tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 Imminent Events: Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Lectures
03 The Magazine Itself: Kissing, Then Redness
04 SPOTLIGHT: Worst Myopia Claw Intraocular Lens
05 Time, Specifically, for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
06 Heads Versus Risk Limerick Contest
07 Rock and Roller on Drugs Poet
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Smelly Breathing and People, Tadpoles on Marijuana
09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bad Heads Not As Bad As Seen, Maybe
10 Improbable Research Events
11 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe or Get Single Issues (*)
12 — Contact Info (*)
13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
14 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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02 Imminent Events: Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Lectures
Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & webcast — Sep 22, 2016
Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 24, 2016
DETAILS:
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
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03 The Magazine Itself: Kissing, Then Redness
The special RED issue (volume 22, number 5) of the magazine is in prep. The special KISSING issue (vol 22, no 4) is available, online.
SUBSCRIPTIONS & SINGLE ISSUES: <https://gumroad.com/improbable>
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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04 SPOTLIGHT: Worst Myopia Claw Intraocular Lens
This month's research spotlight illuminates a lens:
"Correction of High Myopia With the Worst Myopia Claw Intraocular Lens," Monika Landesz, Jan G.F. Worst, Jaap V. Siertsema; Gabriel van Rij, Journal of Refractive Surgery, vol. 11, no. 1, January 1995, pp. 16-67. <https://is.gd/kSQpXA> The authors write:
"We report the initial results of our prospective study on the Worst myopia claw intraocular lens (IOL) that is fixated to the anterior iris."
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05 Time, Specifically, for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
There are just a few tickets still available for the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.
The ceremony will take place at Harvard's Sanders Theatre on Thursday evening, September 22 starting at 6 pm (Boston time). It will be webcast live. Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be honored for achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.
The theme of this year's ceremony is TIME. The ceremony will include the premier of a new mini-opera, "The Last Second", about the leap second. There will be a special appearance by one of the scientists who decide when and how to create leap seconds.
DETAILS: <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2016/>
TICKETS: <https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/>
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06 Heads Versus Risk Limerick Contest
This month's challenge: Devise a limerick elucidating this study:
"Males Choose to Keep Their Heads: Preference for Lower Risk Females in a Praying Mantid," Esteban Avigliano1, Romina C. Scardamaglia, Fabi‡n M. Gabelli, Lorena Pompilio, Behavioural Processes, vol. 129, August 2016, pp. 80–85. <https://is.gd/K1yRvF> The authors, at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, report:
"Males were confronted individually with three options: a female eating a prey, a female without a prey, and a male eating a prey (as a control for the presence of prey).... Male mantids significantly preferred females that were eating a prey."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
HEADS VERSUS RISK LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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07 Rock and Roller on Drugs Poet
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Rock and Roller on Drugs Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:
"Vancomycin and The Red-Man Syndrome: Pharmacodynamics of Histamine Release," David T. Rock, Ken Roller, et al., Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 157, no. 3, 1988, pp. 502-507. <https://is.gd/TG2sfU>
The winner is INVESTIGATOR DAVID WEINBERGER, who wrote:
It's only rock and roller, 'tis said,
but still it can do a number on your head
when a histamine infusion
causes deep confusion
by painting liberals' necks deep red.
Here's the outpouring by our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Rock and Roller, on drugs, herein show
What can happen with dosages low.
So what happens, in fact?
Do test subjects react?
The results say, apparently, no.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Smelly Breathing and People, Tadpoles on Marijuana
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
The podcast:
LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>
#74 Predictably Smelly Breathing
#75 Garlic — A Sensory Pleasure or a Social Nuisance?
#76 Fifty Shades, by Gray
#77 Hugging — What Does It Mean?
#78 Smelly People in the Office
The blog <http://www.improbable.com/>:
<> The Pleasure of Being Nasty
<> Marijuana Improves Night Vision of Tadpoles, Study Suggests
<> The (Carbon) Footprints of Criminals (new study)
...and lots more
Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists, etc (LFHCfS) new member:
<> Ragnhild Bj¿rknes
<http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>:
More, at
[twitter] @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
[facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
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09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bad Heads Not As Bad As Seen, Maybe
"The Aerodynamic Cost of Head Morphology in Bats: Maybe Not as Bad as It Seems," Dieter Vanderelst, Herbert Peremans, Norizham Abdul Razak, Edouard Verstraelen, Greg Dimitriadis, PLoS ONE, vol. 10, no. 3, 2015, e0118545. <https://is.gd/Xg0y7t> The authors are at Bristol University, UK, and the University of Antwerp, Belgium. (Thanks to Jennifer Oullette for bringing this to our attention.)
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10 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony and webcast — Sep 22, 2016
Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 24, 2016
Science Friday Ig Nobel broadcast — Nov 25, 2016
AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston — Feb 18, 2017
Ig Nobel EuroTour — Mar 2017
Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Annual Meeting
— Apr 27, 2017
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11 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe or Get Single Issues (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to AIR.)
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
SUBSCRIPTIONS (just $25)
BACK-ISSUES (just $5 each)
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12 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
(+1) 617-491-4437
Web Site & blog & subscriptions: <http://www.improbable.com>
Twitter: @ImprobResearch
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
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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 2016, Annals of Improbable Research
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14 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)
Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement*
to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
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To subscribe or unsubscribe to mini-AIR, please visit
<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>
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