mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
August 2020, issue number 2021-08. 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: The Issue of Haphazardness
03 Fukushima and the Wine in an Unopened Bottle
04 Preview: The 2021 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Webcast
05 Limerick Challenge: Optical Versus Acoustic Antibottle Resonators
06 Impatient Patient Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Covid Saints, Robots, Split's Stuff Frogs
08 Identification of a Possibly Non Bottle
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: The Issue of Haphazardness
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR)
is overflow detritus oozed from
the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The special HAPHAZARD issue (vol. 27, no. 3) of the magazine is, haphazardly enough, available:
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume27/v27i3/v27i3.php>
The subsequent issue— the special DUCKS issue—is being cooked up.
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
<https://gumroad.com/improbable>
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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03 Fukushima and the Wine in an Unopened Bottle
This month's maybe-random research item:
"Dating of Wines with Cesium-137: Fukushima's Imprint," Michael S. Pravikoff, Christine Marquet, and Philippe Hubert, arXiv:1807.04340, 2018. <https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04340> (Thanks to Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan (CNRS/Université de Bordeaux), report:
"Did the Fukushima incident in 2001 leave its signature via the Cs-137 radioactivity in wines, mainly from the Nappa Valley? This is a short note about a few measurements done at the PRISNA facility in Bordeaux, France, where the method of dating wine without opening the bottle was initially developed."
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04 Preview: The 2021 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Webcast
The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021, beginning at 6 pm (US eastern time). Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony will again be entirely online. There will be a special livestream in Japanese (on the Nico Nico network). There might also be a special livestream in Spanish (that's not definite yet, but we are hopeful.)
Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
The prizes will be handed out by this gaggle of Nobel laureates:
Rich Roberts (physiology or medicine, 1993)
Frances Arnold (chemistry, 2018)
Marty Chalfie (chemistry, 2008)
Eric Maskin (economics, 2007)
Barry Sharpless (chemistry, 2001)
Robert Lefkowitz (chemistry, 2012)
Carl Weiman (physics, 2001)
Eric Cornell (physics, 2001)
Jerome Friedman (physics, 1990)
The theme of this year's ceremony is ENGINEERING. A new mini-opera, called "A Bridge Between People", amplifies that theme.
The ceremony will also include the 24/7 Lectures, in which the lecturers explain their topic first in 24 SECONDS, then in seven WORDS.
This year's lecturers and their topics:
Gwinyai Masukume: Drinking Coffee
Françoise Brochard: Soft Matter
Chaouki Abdallah: Feedback Control
Patricia Yang: Excretion Dynamics
Iman Farahbakhsh: Baby-Washing Technology
For DETAILS, see the ceremony web page:
<https://www.improbable.com/ig/2021-ceremony/>
Please spread the word!
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05 Limerick Challenge: Optical Versus Acoustic Antibottle Resonators
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Optical Bottle Versus Acoustic Bottle and Antibottle Resonators," M. Sumetsky, Optics Letters, vol. 42, no. 5, 2017, pp. 923-926.
<https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.42.000923> (Thanks to Michael Sholinback for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Ashton Univesity, reports:
"The theory of slow acoustic modes propagating along the optical fiber and being controlled by the nanoscale variation of the effective fiber radius (analogous to the theory of slow optical whispering gallery modes) is developed. Surprisingly, it is shown that, in addition to acoustic bottle resonators (which are similar to optical bottle resonators), there exist antibottle resonators, the neck-shaped deformations of the fiber that can fully confine acoustic modes."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
ANTIBOTTLE RESONATORS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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06 Impatient Patient Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"Watch Out for the Impatient Patient," J. Bates, Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing), vol. 31, no. 28, 2017, p. 33.
<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28271769/>
Winning LIMERICIST ROLAND GIERSIG writes:
"One question" said Jane with aghast,
"will drive down my spirits quite fast:
'How long will it be?',
asked impatiently,
may result in a limb in a cast."
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Jane Bates, the famed author and nurse,
Inspires and moves me to verse.
What's more worthy of hate
Than when patients can't wait?
To be terse, it's the nurse's worst curse.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Covid Saints, Robots, Split's Stuff Frogs
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Saint Choice and the Fight Against Covid-19
* De-Humanizing Humanoid Robots
* Some Stuff about the Stuffed Frogs in Split
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
* Episode #1079: "Cats and Appropriate Music"
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 Identification of a Possibly Non Bottle
" '… Yo-ho-ho, and a Bottle of [Beer]!' (R.L. Stevenson) No Beer But Rather Cereal-Food. Commentary: Liu et al. 2018," David Eitam, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 28, no. 101913, 2019.
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X18307259> the author reports:
"Recently, Liu and others have interpreted the Natufian narrow conical mortar cut into a boulder as a storage facility for beer-producing materials. They meticulously studied the residual plant taxa and mortars use wear and carried out experimental studies. We argue that the authors' evidence presented does not necessarily support this interpretation. It, however, reveals direct evidence for the making of cereal-food, namely our suggestion that the Natufian NCM was specially designed for the peeling and milling of barley grains into fine flour for making bread."
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
Readercon Aug 14, 2021
2021 IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY Sep 9, 2021
Ig Nobel Exhibition, Fukuoka, Japan Sep 9-Nov 3, 2021
2021 Ig Informal Lectures TBA 2021
Ig Nobel Euro (& Brexitannia) Tour Spring 2022
[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>
ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>
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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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