This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Money reunited — Chung To Kong found a way, in the spirit of unboiling an egg (Feedback, 10 September 2022), to make banknotes from shredded banknote pieces…. The big bite — Highly educated humans are trying to […]
Category: Research News
Research — on any and all subjects — that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Cuteness as Soft Power
Cuteness can be powerful on a national level and also internationally, according to this study: “Soft Power: ʻCute Culture’, A Persuasive Strategy in Japanese Advertising,” Oana-Maria Bîrlea, TRAMES, A Journal Of The Humanities And Social Sciences, 2023, pp. 311–324. The author [pictured here] explains: “The article addresses the ways in which soft power is used […]
Low-gravity blood spatter, Thinking inside the box, Stick to Fruit, Genital glow
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Blood spatter on high — “Be prepared!” This enduring motto of the Scout movement will come to mind for many readers of a paper called “Bloodstain pattern dynamics in microgravity: Observations of a pilot study in the […]
Boxing, Walls, Surfing value, Car jeers and cheers, Dead ant repellant
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Boxing: thinking outside — From time to time, the sport of boxing changes its rules. But for the most part, it still requires that each participant in a match be both human and alive. (Exceptions do occasionally […]
Dog tail wagging, Donald Duck dam jubilee, Anti-covid tea-gargling, Urine on acorns
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Chasing the tale — Silvia Leonetti and colleagues in the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, the US and Denmark don’t quite explain why dogs wag their tails, but they do explain that it is hard to explain. In a paper […]
Coffee-Smell-Enhanced Coffee Smell
Coffee smell can be enhanced in reliability and intensity, suggests this study, by adding coffee smell from used coffee: “Improvement of Robusta coffee aroma by modulating flavor precursors in the green coffee bean with enzymatically treated spent coffee grounds: A circular approach,” Cyril Moccand, Aditya Daniel Manchala, Jean-Luc Sauvageat, Anthony Lima, Yvette Fleury Rey, and […]
Ig Nobel events in Denmark — April 9 and 10
The Ig Nobel EuroTour comes to Denmark this week, with 2 events: Tuesday, April 9, 2024, 7 pm — Aarhus University (and specially livestreamed to more than 300 theaters, libraries and other venues, some also offering dinner, throughout the kingdom of Denmark) Wednesday, April 10, 7 pm — Copenhagen University, as part of the Vin […]
Tea paving, Solar cells like razor blades, Alligator bellows, Ants for your arteries
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Paved with good tea — What to do with all the waste from preparing zillions of cups of tea? Researchers in Malaysia propose converting some of it into infrastructure.Mohammad Al Biajawi at University Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah and […]
Hooking the Scientific Community on Thorny-Headed Worms
Info and maybe advice for admirers of thorny-headed worms: “Hooking the Scientific Community on Thorny-Headed Worms: Interesting and Exciting Facts, Knowledge Gaps and Perspectives for Research Directions on Acanthocephala,” Marie-Jeanne Perrot-Minnot, Camille-Sophie Cozzarolo, Omar Amin, Daniel Barčák, Alexandre Bauer, Vlatka Filipović Marijić, Martín García-Varela, et al., Parasite, vol. 30 2023.
Yell at the umpire, nozzles (ice cream, chocolate, bevelled), crypto-emojis
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Berate the refs — There is new evidence that it can pay to scream at referees in sports stadiums. That evidence appears in the study ‘Verbal aggressions against Major League Baseball umpires affect their decision making”… Your ice […]