Research — on any and all subjects — that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
“What Slime Knows” is an essay by Lacy M. Johnson, in Orion magazine: Here in this little patch of mulch in my yard is a creature that begins life as a microscopic amoeba and ends it as a vibrant splotch that produces spores, and for all the time in between, it is a single cell […]
What can one conclude from playing music for a few stressed cats? A new study suggests the answer: “Evaluation of Music Therapy to Reduce Stress in Hospitalized Cats,” Juliane Eg Paz, Fernanda Va da Costa, Luciana N Nunes, Eduardo R Monteiro, and Jenifer Jung, Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, epub 2021. The authors, at […]
Leaf blowers, subject of turbulent debate when compared with rakes, can, should they choose to, claim a place in debates about capitalism versus socialism. This study shows how: “The Leaf Blower, Capitalism, and the Atomization of Everyday Life,” Jules Boykoff, Capitalism Nature Socialism, vol. 22, no. 3, September 2011.
Are there fewer robberies in urban areas where the streets are quite steep? A question investigated in a 2020 research project by Professor Cory Haberman and Professor James Kelsay entitled : The Topography of Robbery: Does Slope Matter? Journal of Quantitative Criminology volume 37, pages 625–645. “Steeper street blocks may have fewer robberies because they make the physical […]
Ig Nobel Prize-winning research comparing magnetized and unmagnetized cockroaches has now led to an experiment involving quantum entanglement and a tardigrade. Details about the tardigrade and entanglement are in this study: “Entanglement Between Superconducting Qubits and a Tardigrade,” K. S. Lee, Y. P. Tan, L. H. Nguyen, R. P. Budoyo, K. H. Park, C. Hufnagel, […]