mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
February 2020, issue number 2021-02. 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 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Issue, with Chocolate on the Horizon
03 Death by Spaghetti
04 Improbable Zoom Talks for Libraries
05 Limerick Challenge: Pathogen Death from Pasta
06 Double Dung-Aroma-ed Tobacco Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Wrinkles, Wrapping, New Hair Members
08 Cell Death from Tomato Sauce
20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
32 — Contact Info (*)
33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Issue, with Chocolate on the Horizon
WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT
is just our monthly newsletter, (mini-AIR).
This is overflow bits-and-pieces overflow detritus from
the actual magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 26, no. 1) of the magazine is available:
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume26/v26i6/v26i6.php>
The next issue (vol 27, no. 1), a special CHOCOLATE issue, has been steeping, gently gaining in flavor, and will be served very soon.
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
<https://gumroad.com/improbable>
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03 Death by Spaghetti
This month's maybe-random research item:
"Sudden Death of a Young Adult Associated with Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning," María Naranjo, Sarah Denayer, Nadine Botteldoorn, Laurence Delbrassinne, Jean Veys, Jacques Waegenaere, Nicolas Sirtaine, Ronald B. Driesen, Karin R. Sipido, Jacques Mahillon, and Katelijne Dierick, Journal of clinical microbiology, vol. 49, no. 12, 2011, pp. 4379-4381.
<https://jcm.asm.org/content/49/12/4379.short> The authors report:
"On 1 October 2008, a 20-year-old man became sick after eating a meal of leftovers of spaghetti with tomato sauce, which had been prepared 5 days before and left in the kitchen at room temperature…. although the autopsy results were not conclusive, probably due to the delay in analysis, the large number of B. cereus cells and the significant cereulide concentration found in the leftovers are the most likely cause of death of the young healthy man."
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04 Improbable Zoom Talks for Libraries
We are going to being doing Zoom talks for libraries, about the Ig Nobel Prizes and about all sorts of improbable research.
If your library would like an Improbable Research Zoom talk, please ask them to get in touch with us at this secret-coded email address: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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05 Limerick Challenge: Pathogen Death from Pasta
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Death kinetics of pathogens in a pasta product" Fu‐Hung Hsieh, K. Acott, and Ted P. Labuza, Journal of food science, 41, no. 3, 1976, pp. 516-519. <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1976.tb00660.x> The authors report:
"The death kinetics of Salmonellae anatum NF3 and Staphylococcus aureus 196E were determined as a function of temperature and water activity. Death kinetics were measured in a solid medium composed of a semolinaegg dough which was mixed at constant temperature in a Brabender Farinograph bowl. First order death kinetics were found at all conditions."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
DEATH-BY-PASTA LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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06 Double Dung-Aroma-ed Tobacco Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"Effects of Cow Dung on the Contents of Aroma Components of Flue-Cured Tobacco," Feng-xia Zhang, Yong-jian Ma, Hai-qun Bai, Peng-fei Song, and Fu-gen Han, Journal of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (Natural Science), vol. 1, 2009.
<https://tinyurl.com/y67nf935>
INVESTIGATOR KEITH R. ELWOOD writes:
Discriminate smokers admit
Tobacco's a flavourful hit.
But cow dung afire
Might even require
Inveterate smokers to quit.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
When you're planting is when you should choose,
Not when curing tobacco in flues.
If you want to do well,
In terms of the smell,
Adjust how much cow dung you use.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Wrinkles, Wrapping, New Hair Members
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* How Much Older Do You Get When a Wrinkle Appears on Your Face?
* Dead Reckoning at a Top Medical Journal
* Thinking from Outside the Wrapped Box
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
Newest Members:
* Froylan Soza
* John B. Cole
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
* Episode #1052: "Do Frogs in Helium Get Squeaky Voices?"
* Episode #1053: "Does One Armpit Smell Like the Other?
* Episode #1054: "Effect of Eating Garlic on Armpit Odor"
* Episode #1055: "The Best Life” Opera (Act 1)"
* Episode #1056: "Egg in Your Eye"
FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
INSTAGRAM: <https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/>
PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>
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08 Cell Death from Tomato Sauce
"Effects of Tomato Sauce Consumption on Apoptotic Cell Death in Prostate Benign Hyperplasia and Carcinoma," Hyung-Sook Kim, Phyllis Bowen, Longwen Chen, Claudine Duncan, Luna Ghosh, Roohollah Sharifi, and Konstantin Christov, Nutrition and Cancer, vol. 47, no. 1, 2003, pp. 40-47. <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327914nc4701_5> The authors report:
"Thirty-two patients diagnosed by biopsy with prostate carcinoma were given tomato sauce pasta entrees (30 mg lycopene/day) for 3 wk before prostatectomy. Thirty-four patients with prostate cancer who did not consume tomato sauce and underwent prostatectomy served as controls…. Tomato sauce consumption did not affect Bcl-2 expression but decreased Bax expression in carcinomas. These data provide the first in vivo evidence that tomato sauce consumption may suppress the progression of the disease in a subset of patients with prostate cancer by increasing apoptotic cell death."
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FIND (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE ACTUAL (PDF) MAGAZINE!
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
2021 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony —September 2021
2021 Ig Informal Lectures —September 2021
2021 Ig Nobel EuroTour (we hope) —TBA 2021
Ig Nobel Exhibition, Japan (we hope) —TBA 2021
[All live events in 2021 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]
For details and additional events, see
<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>
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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,
in PDF form.
It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($5 each)
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)
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31 — 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>
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Cambridge, MA, USA
Twitter: @ImprobResearch
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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, 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 2021, Annals of Improbable Research
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