The folks at Today I Found Out take a look at the Ig Nobel Prize-winning Pitch Drop Experiment: The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting an experiment that began in the year 1927 — in which a glob of congealed black tar […]
Category: Arts and Science
Research and other stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Industrial mysteries: Where’d That Chemical Come From?
Mystery abounds, in little ways, in the industries that supply chemicals. Derek Lowe, writing in Chemical World, opens the curtain on some of those mysteries: So the world of chemical supply is far from straightforward, and it can be affected in unpredictable ways. The last two years have illustrated some of these… The complications become […]
Adventures in Mailing
Alyssa Pelish writes about the difficult cases handled by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Pelish’s essay, called “The Bureau of Hards“, appears in the Fence blog. Close attention is paid there to a modest experiment: Indeed, an experiment run in 2000 by a group affiliated with the eccentrics behind the annual Ig Nobel Prize found that […]
Rauks are Rocks
Tom Gill alerted us to this study, saying “I’ve been a geology nerd for fifty-plus years. I was today years old when I learned that a type of rocks exists which is officially named… rauks.” The study is: “Limestone Sea Stacks (Rauks) Record Past Sea Levels and Rocky Coast Evolution in the Baltic Sea (Gotland […]
Ig Nobel Prizes in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post Crossword Puzzle
The Ig Nobel Prizes have again turned up in a crossword puzzle, this time as an answer in the August 2, 2022 puzzle in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The clue for one of the down words is: 23 ___ Satiric Science Prize for “research that makes people laugh then think” By our […]
An English Lesson for Korean Speakers: Laugh First, and Then Think
We cannot help recommending this English language lesson, by Joey쌤, titled “중학교 3학년 천재(정사열) Lesson 3 Laugh First and Then Think : The Ig Nobel Prize 본문 해설“. It is intended primarily for Korean speakers:
An analysis of journal articles winning Ig Nobel prizes during 2011–2020
Dr. Andy Wai Kan Yeung (pictured here, below) of the University of Hong Kong analyzed several years’ worth of Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies. He published a paper telling how he did it, and what he found. You can download the paper. Here’s the citation: “Not just nickel-and-dime: An analysis of journal articles winning Ig Nobel […]
Musical Instrument Distinguishes between Diethylene Glycol and Glycerol (and more)
In the hands of a scientist, musical instruments can do many sorts of things. This study tells how some instruments can be used to distinguish between different kinds of physical materials. “Musical Instruments as Sensors,” Heran C. Bhakta, Vamsi K. Choday, and William H. Grover, ACS Omega, vol. 3, 2018, pp. 11026−11032. The authors, at […]
Reading on a Smartphone, and Sighing
If you are reading this on a smartphone, please monitor your sighing activity. As you read, and as you sigh, consider the details presented in the following study: “Reading on a Smartphone Affects Sigh Generation, Brain Activity, and Comprehension,” Motoyasu Honma, Yuri Masaoka, Natsuko Iizuka, Sayaka Wada, Sawa Kamimura, Akira Yoshikawa, Rika Moriya, Shotaro Kamijo, […]
Lip Vibration Assessment of Hot Pepper Sensation [research study]
The mystery of spice-induced lip tingling succumbed, partially, to investigation in the year 2013. Details are in this study: “Food Vibrations: Asian Spice Sets Lips Trembling,” Nobuhiro Hagura, Harry Barber, and Patrick Haggard, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 280, no. 1770, 2013: 20131680. The authors, at University College London, report: Szechuan […]