This strangeness correction appeared in today’s New York Times: OBITUARIES An obituary on May 25 about the physicist Murray Gell-Mann overstated a law about the conservation of a quantity in physics called strangeness. It is conserved in strong interactions and electromagnetic interactions but not in weak interactions. It is not the case that “like energy, strangeness must […]
Category: Improbable Investigators
People who do research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Innovative Scientists Talk About Their Childhood (1): Frans de Waal’s Jackdaws
Here’s Frans de Waal talking about some jackdaws that, when Frans was a child, excited him in a way that led to his eventual unusual career. Frans studies chimps, bonobos, macaques, capuchin monkeys, and other of our close relatives. He wants to understand how and why they (and we) do some of the impressive things […]
2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour: Thanks!
A big thank you to everyone and everything who (or that) came to, helped organize, or otherwise was part of the 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour. It all happened in six weeks, in ten countries: Scotland, England, Austria, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Italy (again). Several of the events were webcast, including […]
Four people doing what with beer bottles?
What are these people doing with these beer bottles? Come to the Ig Nobel show at the University of Graz, on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, at 6:00 pm, and the answer might become clear.