mini-AIR December 2018

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

December 2018, issue number 2018-12. ISSN 1076-500X.

<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>

----------

Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

—————————

01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Soon, Medical Surprises Now

04 Salt on a Table

05 The 2019 EuroTour is A-gathering

06 Pepper on Tables Contest

07 Mirrors/Dogs Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pointless Banter, Seafood, Broccoli

09 Salt and Pepper on Morphine

10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

11 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

12 — Contact Info (*)

14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

—————————

02 Imminent Events

Arisia, Boston Jan 18, 2019

New York City Harvard Club Jan 22, 2019

NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Feb 14, 2019

AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC Feb 16, 2019

Ig Nobel EuroTour Mar/Apr 2019

DETAILS, and full schedule: <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

—————————

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Soon, Medical Surprises Now

WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT

is just our monthly newsletter, (mini-AIR).

--> Our best stuff goes into the actual magazine:

"Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR).

Please subscribe to the magazine!

This year's special IG NOBEL issue — will be out soon.

The special MEDICAL SURPRISES issue of the magazine (vol. 24, no. 5) is available: <https://bit.ly/2KkCJ8M>.

Many back issues are available, too.

Feast on improbable Research magazines:

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE

or get SINGLE ISSUES:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

—————————

04 Salt on a Table

This month's research spotlight reflects on Salt reflecting on a table:

"A Round Table on Research in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology," George W. Salt, American Naturalis, vol. 122, no. 5, 1983. <https://bit.ly/2CgENvX>

—————————

05 The 2019 EuroTour is A-gathering

The 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour is gathering form, and substance, too, for March and early April 2019.

A partial schedule is at <https://is.gd/fGOYzz>.

This year we will be mixing in some solo talks by Marc Abrahams, along with some traditional "big" (several Ig Nobel Prize winners, and Marc) shows.

If your institution, department, or group would like to host an Ig Nobel talk or an Ig Nobel show,

please get in touch with us!

—————————

06 Pepper on Tables Contest

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Realizing Sets by Hash Tables," Peter Pepper, Ralph Betschko, Sabine Dick, and Klaus Didrich, in KORSO: Methods, Languages, and Tools for the Construction of Correct Software, pp. 58-73. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1995. <ttps://bit.ly/2A1gAIN>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

PEPPER ON TABLES LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

—————————

07 Mirrors/Dogs Winner

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

"Do Dogs Use a Mirror to Find Hidden Food?" Tiffani J. Howell, Samia Toukhsati, Russell Conduit, and Pauleen Bennett, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, vol. 8, no. 6, 2013, pp. 425-430. <https://bit.ly/2Bog5cL>

INVESTIGATOR MARY JO SHAPIRO writes:

Tell me, why should I look in the mirror

When traditions are more than just dearer.

Any good canine knows:

If he follows his nose

His path to the food will be clearer

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Perceptual animals, we

Tend to sense objects visually.

When this is projected

On dogs, what's expected?

Let's run a study and see.

—————————

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pointless Banter, Seafood, Broccoli

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

<> Analyzing pointless banter

<> When seafood scientists became food-poisoned by their own holiday seafood

<> Adding broccoli powder to coffee

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

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

<> New member Danielle Norberg

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

—————————

09 Salt and Pepper on Morphine

"A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Intravenous Morphine at Attenuating the Nociceptive Responses of Medullary Dorsal Horn and Thalamic Neurones," R.G. Hill, T.E. Salt, and C.M. Pepper, Life Sciences, vol. 31, no. 20-21, 1982, pp. 2331-2334.

<https://bit.ly/2LjckZq>

—————————

10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

Arisia, Boston — Jan 18 2019

Harvard Club, New York City — Jan 22, 2019

NIST, Gaithersburg, MD — Feb 14, 2019

AAAS meeting, Washington, DC — Feb 16, 2019

Ig Nobel EuroTour — Mar/Apr 2019

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale — Jul 2019

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 2019

For details and additional events, see

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

—————————

11 — 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)

—————————

12 — 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>

—————————

13 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)