Research and other stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: A frothy matter — A report called “Beer foam is a carrier of aroma” may be the crushing blow beer foam aroma sceptics – if there are any – feared…. Hierarchy of dog needs — … Maslow’s […]
We invite you to join us at a new event — Ig Nobel Face-to-Face. This is a companion to the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony that happened in September. Most of the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be there. They will ask each other questions about their work. And you will get a chance to […]
Russian Cyberfarm is part of a crop of newish scifi short films, with a pleasant nod to old documentaries and propaganda films:
Nature Physics has a nice essay today about the Ig Nobel Prizes. We take the liberty of reproducing it here: Editorial Published: 11 October 2023 Levity and gravity Nature Physics, volume 19, page 1375 (2023) The Ig Nobel Prize celebrates research that makes us first laugh and then think. We look at some of this year’s not so […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Too fast, too furious — The Fast & Furious action movies now have a companion in the world of animal study. A team of biologists videoed a furious and fast – well, relatively fast – incident, which they […]
If you prefer not to do your own epiglottis calculations (maybe you fear you lack the mathematical chops to do that well?), this new study may bring cheer: “Development of a Deep Learning-Based Epiglottis Obstruction Ratio Calculation System,” by Hsing-Hao Su and Chuan-Pin Lu, Sensors, 2023. 4. Maybe you are unsure what and where your […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Mapping black holes — Richard Notley has been wondering down a dark path… and found enlightenment in remarks made by mathematician Roger Penrose (New Scientist, 19 November 2022) about the structure of the universe. He writes: “Roger […]
Jonathan Strickland takes a detailed half-hour journey through Ig Nobel history, focusing mostly on some of the early technology-related prize-winners, in the Tech Stuff podcast. Strickland vows to do another podcast about some of the later winners. [UPDATE, October 5, 2023]. And in a later episode he takes a further journey.] A list of all […]
On Friday, September 29, we will be doing TWO (2) shows of Improbable Dramatic Readings as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, organized by the MIT Museum. What Luminaries (of various wattage) will each do brief dramatic readings from seemingly absurd, genuine research studies and patents. Some of those studies and patents have won Ig […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Double standards— World Standards Day 2023 will arrive soon, two days after it arrives. As Feedback noted last year (17 September 2022), having double Standards Days is standard behaviour. This year, most of the world will officially celebrate […]