“Speakers often gesture in telephone conversations, even though they are not visible to their addressees.” But why? Given that everyone realises (that from the listener’s point of view at least) it’s entirely pointless. In one of the few scientific examinations to tackle the subject, Dr. Janet Beavin Bavelas and colleagues at the Human Interaction Laboratory, […]
About: Martin Gardiner
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Posts by Martin Gardiner:
Mustache transplant update
It is believed that the first mustache transplants were performed by the late trichological pioneer Dr. Okuda in 1930’s Japan. Since then, considerable progress has been made – some of which is described by Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich (pictured) of the DHT clinic in Bangkok, Thailand who is a key contributor to Hair Restoration Surgery in […]
The Mystery of the European Smile
“Despite the fact that 20 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Internet users from a former Soviet bloc appear to smile less often than those from Western Europe.” This is the new finding from Assistant Professor Piotr Szarota from the Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej, in Warsaw, Poland. In his experiment, two […]
Organizational Psychology with horses
Human/Horse interaction – “… has now reached organizations in the form of coaching, training or corporate away-days through what is loosely termed ‘the way of the horse’.” explains Dr. Andreas Liefooghe, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, who has an academic interest in horses. Focussing especially on the […]
Extending the vNM EU
“Patrons of a local restaurant often do not wish to enter the kitchen.” Or, put another way – “There are many situations in which individuals have a choice of whether or not to observe the eventual outcome. In these instances, individuals often prefer to avoid observing the outcome.” These observations form the bedrock for investigations […]
Re-envisioning the Chess-bot
Robotic Chess Players are not new. But robots which play Chess via a touch-screen are. For this reason, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology has just received a US patent for their ‘Board Game System Utilizing a Robot Arm’. The emphasis on the ‘arm’ part is perhaps […]
Icicles in Toronto
“A complete theory of icicle shape, including tip growth, self-similarity and the ripple instability, is currently lacking.” Prompting professor Stephen W. Morris and Antony Szu-Han Chen from the Department of Physics, at the University of Toronto, Canada to construct ‘An apparatus for the controlled growth of icicles’. The team used their specially designed table-top apparatus […]
Did the Great Pyramid Have an Elevator?
… asks Peter C. Sundt, BSc. in the latest issue (june 2010) of the journal Elevator World (page 114). Although the article is ‘subscribers only’, an earlier essay by the same author on broadly the same subject (with the same title) is available online here, via The Structural Engineer. “Most agree that the Great Pyramid […]
The tail of the gecko (continued)
What is it for? Researchers from the Poly-PEDAL Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, have been investigating. “We show that a gecko’s tail functions as an emergency fifth leg to prevent falling during rapid climbing.” explain authors Jusufi, A., D. I. Goldman, S. Revzen, and R. J. Full in their 2008 paper Active tails […]
Facial hirsutism tax revival?
In the current hard-pressed fiscal scenario, many governments are struggling with a tricky balancing act – how to come up with taxation schemes which can raise substantial revenues without losing votes. Professor Erik M Jensen of Case Western Reserve University School of Law suggests a new one – or rather the revival of an old […]