Mini-AIR

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

March 2018, issue number 2018-03. SSN 1076-500X.

----------

Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

—————————

01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Coming Events: The Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Pizza & Popcorn

04 A Risk From Flushing

05 Airborne-Bacteria-That-Land-on-Toothbrushes Challenge

06 Colonoscopy Robot Triumph

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Outstanding, Holes, Salami Slicing

08 Lifting the Lid: Is the Danger Real or Imagined?

09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

12 — Contact Info (*)

13 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

—————————

02 Coming Events: The Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour

Improbable events in the near future:

IG NOBEL SPRING EUROTOUR — March 9 - April 11

London

Vienna

Berlin

Langen

Heidelberg

Lausanne

Stockholm

Aarhus

Lyngby

... and perhaps a few other places

FEATURING, in different combinations:

Can a cat be both a liquid and a solid? Living in the wild as five kinds of animal. Can identical twins tell themselves apart visually? Could the emperor of Morocco really have fathered 888 sons? Is there no contagious yawning amongst tortoises? Using a didgeridoo to treat obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring. Running on water on the moon. Homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. How often do liars lie? Do psychopaths tend to be night owls?

Details and additional events:

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

—————————

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Pizza & Popcorn

The special Pizza & Popcorn issue of the magazine (vol 24, no. 1) will become available any day now: <https://is.gd/Fzrc6l>

Gorge yourself on improbable research:

MAGAZINE SINGLE ISSUES & SUBSCRIPTIONS:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

—————————

04 A Risk From Flushing

This month's research spotlight shines on dispersal:

"The Potential Spread of Infection Caused by Aerosol Contamination of Surfaces After Flushing a Domestic Toilet," J. Barker and M.V. Jones, Journal of Applied Microbiology, vol. 99, no. 2, 2005, pp. 339-347. <https://is.gd/PMtjrw> The authors, at Aston University and Unilever Research Port Sunlight Laboratory, report:

"Although a single flush reduced the level of micro-organisms in the toilet bowl water when contaminated at concentrations reflecting pathogen shedding, large numbers of micro-organisms persisted on the toilet bowl surface and in the bowl water which were disseminated into the air by further flushes."

—————————

05 Airborne-Bacteria-That-Land-on-Toothbrushes Challenge

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge —

Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"The Effects of Proximity on Aerosol Distribution of Bacteria on Toothbrushes," Elly A. Montero, Isabelle B. Isom, Jeanne Fults, Samantha Cvijanovich, Aubree Chismark, and Benjamin B. Tran, Journal of the California Dental Hygienists' Association, vol. 27, no. 2, 2012, pp. 17-21. <https://is.gd/LwQc0t>. The authors, at West Coast University, report:

"Our findings suggested there is a uniform distribution in aerosol bacteria from toilet flushing, which was indicated in additional coliform deposits on toothbrush bristles of those kept in the tested bathrooms."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

BACTERIA-LANDING-ON-TOOTHBRUSHES LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

—————————

06 Colonoscopy Robot Triumph

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"Design and Preliminary Evaluation of a Self-Steering, Pneumatically Driven Colonoscopy Robot," Hossein Dehghani, C. Ross Welch, Abolfazl Pourghodrat, Carl A. Nelson, Dmitry Oleynikov, Prithviraj Dasgupta, and Benjamin S. Terry, Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, vol. 41, no. 3, 2017, pp. 223-236.

<https://is.gd/TPTeGW>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR CHRIS HANSEN, who writes:

A robot that starts up your butt

And pneumatically wends toward your gut

Taking snaps as it goes

To help diagnose woes

Is a great invitation to smut.

The word from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Colonoscopies too often pain us.

So what can technology gain us?

Hold on tight, this is big!

From research on a pig,

There's a robot right now in my anus.

—————————

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Outstanding, Holes, Salami Slicing

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The blog <http://www.improbable.com/>:

<> Outstanding Press Release of the Year

<> Physiology of Aversion to Clusters of Holes

<> Scientific Salami Slicing: 33 Papers from 1 Study

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs:

<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

—————————

08 Lifting the Lid: Is the Danger Real or Imagined?

"Lifting the Lid on Toilet Plume Aerosol: A Literature Review With Suggestions for Future Research," David L. Johnson, Kenneth R. Mead, Robert A. Lynch, and Deborah V.L. Hirst, American Journal of Infection Control, vol. 41, no. 3, 2013, pp. 254-258. <https://is.gd/uqO38M>

"The studies demonstrate that potentially infectious aerosols may be produced in substantial quantities during flushing. Aerosolization can continue through multiple flushes to expose subsequent toilet users. Some of the aerosols desiccate to become droplet nuclei and remain adrift in the air currents. However, no studies have yet clearly demonstrated or refuted toilet plume-related disease transmission, and the significance of the risk remains largely uncharacterized."

—————————

09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

For details and additional events, see

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

Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour — Mar-Apr 2018

Northwest Rheumatism Society,

Portland, OR — Apr 26, 2018

Ig Nobel tickets go on sale — July, 2018

28th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony — Sep 13, 2018

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 15, 2018

Japan — Oct, 2018

—————————

10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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 the actual magazine.)

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

SINGLE ISSUES ($5 each)

—————————

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

This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR:

<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

—————————

12 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)