Category: Arts and Science

Every kind of bug or beast or plant or other living creature has a formal name. Some of those names are strange indeed. Investigator Mark Isaac has compiled lists many of the strangest. See his collection here. Thanks to investigator Antonio de la Nuez Latorre for bringing it to our attention.

Three out of five teachers agree: curiosity is a dangerous thing, especially in students. If you are one of the other two teachers, AIR and mini-AIR can be powerful tools. Choose your favorite hAIR-raising article and give copies to your students. The approach is simple. The scientist thinks that he (or she, or whatever), of […]

Old food lingers on, in the memory and in print. AIR publishes a reviews of cafeterias at the world’s great research institutions. In 1996 our reviewer Stephen Drew visited the Whitehead Institute, where he encountered a meal. Read about it here.

How to get girls interested in science? It can be done. It has been done. A certain professor, writing under cover of a pen name, explains how here.

Curious about the solution to the puzzler? See the solution that’s in the January-February 2004 issue (vol. 10, no. 1) of the Annals of Improbable Research. Find it here.

For a good, concise, pictorial introduction to the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS), savor the two-page spread that appears in the Special Beauty Issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Read it here. Then go to the Club’s home page, which is here. If you know someone who should be a member, please […]

I teach at a school in Englewood Colorado, and I’d like your help with a rumor. My teammate’s daughter has heard that her science teacher was in the calendar “Studmuffins of Science.” His name is Timothy (TJ) Donahue, and he teaches at Cherry Creek High School. Can you help us verify this rumor either from […]

So far we have received no entries — not a single one — for our contest to choose the best limerick on the topic Nanotechnology and Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano We therefore declare the contest to be over. We feel that to end this contest without any winner would be an insult to Prime […]

A Briefer History of Time is now five years old. Eric Schulman’s 200-word classic article “The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less,” expanded to book length, was published five years ago. To celebrate, the author has updated the history, and posted a free downloadable copy (in the form of a PDF file) […]

"’Homemade Zygotes — Just Like Mom’s!’"  You may not be that far off!" So writes investigator Ron Josephson. The phrase is familiar to regular readers of AIR’s Unclassified Ads section, in which an ad saying exactly that has been appearing relentlessly for years now. See for example, the Unclassified Ads section in the magazine’s Jan//Feb […]