Research — on any and all subjects — 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: Best interests at heart? — Feedback is fascinated by the final eight words in this statement: “Disadvantages include the competitive element associated with racing, which creates a strong incentive to kill birds where this is not in […]
Murder investigations have become more popular over the past hundred million years or so. Even very old unsolved murder cases sometimes arouse public interest. Here is a newly reported very old case: “Death by ammonite: fatal ingestion of an ammonoid shell by an Early Jurassic bony fish,” Samuel L. A. Cooper and Erin E. Maxwell, […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Black hole bum— Roger Sharp adds another item to Feedback’s compendium of black holes that are findable on surface maps of our own planet (7 October). Visitors to the Maitai Esplanade Reserve in Nelson, New Zealand, may find relief […]
There is abundant charm in this video about an experiment “to figure out where to best place a fan to optimally air out the house to cool it down at night”: (Thanks to Chris Hill for bringing this to our attention.)
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Off-putting hair advice — Cutting remarks of a literal kind fill a study called “Off with her hair: Intrasexually competitive women advise other women to cut off more hair”. The research potentially will inspire other kinds of […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Wrong, wrong, wrong — The Journal of Patient Safety has a new report called “Insurance claims for wrong-side, wrong-organ, wrong-procedure, or wrong-person surgical errors: A retrospective study for 10 years“. Something is a little off even with […]
This is a rare music video about using a diamond cutting disk to cut an entrapped metal penile ring. The music is Mozart’s piano concerto no. 21 in C major. The medical procedure is described in the study “Cutting of Entrapped Metal Penile Ring With Diamond Cutting Disk,” Brian Stork and Ehab Eltahawy, JU Open, […]
The special Ig Nobel issue of the magazine (volume 29, number 6) has just gone out to subscribers. It’s got copious details about the 2023 prize winners and the ceremony. And more. Lotsa stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. The magazine is in PDF format. You can buy a copy, or buy a subscription.
Slightly-intriguing study title of the month: “Damage to Seeds by Screw Working Bodies,” Mayya Sukhanova, Eduard Khasanov, Alexander Butenko, Shamil Fayzrakhmanov, and Rinat Fayzullin, Heliyon, 2023, article e18973. The authors explain: “The occurrence of mechanical damage to seeds caused by the operative components of agricultural machinery…” The image you see above is from the study.
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Southern hair whorls — Three northern hemisphere scientists – Marjolaine Willems, Quentin Hennocq and Roman Hossein Khonsari in Paris, France – teamed up with a southern hemisphere scientist – Juan José Cortés Santander in Santiago, Chile – for […]