Mini-AIR

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

October 2019, issue number 2019-10. ISSN 1076-500X.

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

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Still Disgusting, Soon Important

04 Compaction in Breakfast Cereal, Snowballs, and Rocks

05 Limerick Challenge: Further Physics of Breakfast Cereal Flakes

06 A-Look-Back-at-Loch-Ness-Monster-Density Winner

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Now, Then, Driving Rats, Wealthy Snails

08 Tracking Time with Ricequakes

09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

20 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

22 — Contact Info (*)

23 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

* Dammam, Saudi Arabia

* Lubbock, TX, USA

* Vienna, Austria

* Copenhagen, Denmark

* Gothenburg, Sweden

* Cambridge, MA, USA

FULL IMPROBABLE EVENTS SCHEDULE: <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Still Disgusting, Soon Important

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).

Soon, the special IMPORTANT RESEARCH issue (vol. 25, no. 5) of the magazine will be sent to subscribers.

It the meantime, the special Disgusting Research issue (vol. 25, no. 4), is out and about. It is full of delightfully disgusting research:

<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume25/v25i4/v25i4.php>

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get SINGLE ISSUES:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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04 Compaction in Breakfast Cereal, Snowballs, and Rocks

"Dynamic Patterns of Compaction in Brittle Porous Media," François Guillard, Pouya Golshan, Luming Shen, Julio R. Valdes, Itai Einav, Nature Physics, vol. 11, 2015, pp. 835–838. <https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys3424> The authors, at the University of Sydney, Australia, San Diego State University, USA, and University College London, UK, report:

"Brittle porous media exhibit a variety of irreversible patterns during densification, including stationary and moving compaction bands in rocks, foams, cereal packs and snow. We have recently found moving compaction bands in cereal packs; similar bands have been detected in snow. However, the question of generality remains: under what conditions can brittle porous media disclose other densification patterns? Here, using a new heuristic lattice spring model undergoing repeated crushing events, we first predict the possible emergence of new types of dynamic compaction; we then discover and confirm these new patterns experimentally in compressed cereal packs."

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05 Limerick Challenge: Further Physics of Breakfast Cereal Flakes

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

"Physical Properties and Microstructural Changes during Soaking of Individual Corn and Quinoa Breakfast Flakes," Wenceslao T. Medina, Andrés A. de la Llera, Juan L. Condori, José M. Aguilera, Journal of Food Science, vol. 76, no. 3, April 2011, pp. E254–E265. <https://tinyurl.com/y4vgrk8r> This study builds on—but does not cite—the research that won the 1995 Ig Nobel Prize for physics. The authors of this paper, at Pontificia Univ. Católica de Chile, Harvard Univ., and Univ. Nacional del Altiplano de Puno, Peru, report:

"The importance of breakfast cereal flakes (BCF) in Western diets deserves an understanding of changes in their mechanical properties and microstructure that occur during soaking in a liquid (that is, milk or water) prior to consumption. The maximum rupture force (RF) of 2 types of breakfast flaked products (BFP)—corn flakes (CF) and quinoa flakes (QF)—were measured directly while immersed in milk with 2% of fat content (milk 2%) or distilled water for different periods of time between 5 and 300 s.... [The] changes were more pronounced in distilled water than in milk 2%, probably because the fat and other solids in milk become deposited on the flakes’ surface hindering liquid infiltration. Structural and textural modifications were primarily ascribable to the plasticizing effect of water that softened the carbohydrate/protein matrix, inducing partial collapse of the porous structure and eventually disintegration of the whole piece through deep cracks."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

CEREAL FLAKE SOGGINESS LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 A-Look-Back-at-Loch-Ness-Monster-Density Winner

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

"Population Density of Monsters in Loch Ness," R. Sheldon and S. Kerr, Limnology and Oceanography, vol. 17, no. 5, 1972, pp. 796-798.

<https://tinyurl.com/y5qxqwwc>

INVESTIGATOR FRED BETHKE writes:

Those Nessies! They have a propensity,

To not be, despite their immensity.

"No mystery here,"

Says Sheldon. "It's clear,

That they merely are lacking in density."

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

It's a serious paper by folks

Who do serious research, no jokes.

Their logic, I've found,

Is cogent and sound,

But they've based the whole thing on a hoax.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Now, Then, Driving Rats, Wealthy Snails

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

* When Does the Present End – and the Future Begin?

* Method to Improve Rats’ Skill at Driving Cars

* Wealth Inequality Among Snails

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

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08 Tracking Time with Ricequakes

"Tracking Time with Ricequakes in Partially Soaked Brittle Porous Media," Itai Einav and François Guillard, Science Advances, vol. 4, no. 10, October 12, 2018, eaat6961. <https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaat6961.abstract> The authors, at the University of Sydney, Australia, report:

"When brittle porous media interact with chemically active fluids, they may suddenly crumble. This has reportedly triggered the collapse of rockfill dams, sinkholes, and ice shelves. To study this problem, we use a surrogate experiment for the effect of fluid on rocks and ice involving a column of puffed rice partially soaked in a reservoir of liquid under constant pressure. We disclose localized crushing collapse in the unsaturated region that produces incremental global compaction and loud audible beats. These “ricequakes” repeat perpetually during the experiments and propagate upward through the material. The delay time between consecutive quakes grows linearly with time and is accompanied by creep motion."

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09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

New York City, USA —Oct 6, 2019

Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA —Oct 8, 2019

Red Hat, Boston, MA, USA —Oct 9, 2019

Dammam, Saudia Arabia —Oct, 2019

Lubbock, TX —Oct 25, 2019

Vienna, Austria —Nov 7, 2019

Copenhagen, Denmark —Nov 13, 2019

Gothenburg, Sweden —Nov 14, 2019

Harvard U, Cambridge, MA, USA —Nov 18, 2019

Science Friday, public radio, USA —Nov 29, 2019

Beijing, China —Jan 12, 2020

Arisia, Boston, MA, USA —Jan 2020

AAAS Annual Meeting, Seattle —Feb 2020

Ig Nobel EuroTour —Mar/Apr 2020

Ig Nobel ceremony TICKETS go on sale —Jul, 2020

30th First Annual Ig Nobel ceremony —Sep, 2020

Osaka, Japan —Fall, 2020

For details and additional events, see

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

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20 — 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)

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21 — 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.

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22 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)