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 five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Catochromatograph — Laboratories looking to purchase a highly efficient coiled parallel gas chromatograph could save money by instead adopting and adapting a cat. Perhaps. A study called “Domestic cat nose functions as a highly efficient coiled […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Flowery polymorphic perversion — … Grażyna Gajewska at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland is one of the few academics who is now overtly studying polymorphic perversion on a broad, societal level. Her recent treatise “Polymorphic perversion […]
“An Investigation of Variables in a Fecal Flotation Technique“, by M.R. O’Grady and J.O.D. Slocombe, is one of the research studies featured in the article “Icky Cutesy Research: Gills Want Fun, Collection Oil“, in the special Formulas & Recipes issue of the magazine (Annals of Improbable Research). Read the article online. And if you like, subscribe […]
In the new issue of The Coleopterists Bulletin (vol. 77, no. 2, 2023), Sarah M. Smith reviewed the book The Surprising Lives of Bark Beetles, by Jiri Hulcr and Marc Abrahams. Here’s part of Smith’s review: The authors’ love of bark beetles is clear and infectious and the reader will likely come away smitten with these tiny beetles…. I […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: A sick experiment —The phrase “what goes up must come down” isn’t obviously relevant to the insides of a cat. The countervailing “what goes down must come up” is, when that cat has swallowed something of dubious […]
This week’s ambiguously-worded science headline: “Profitability and Cost Analysis for Contract Broiler Production in Turkey,”by Suleyman Karaman, Yavuz Taşcıoğlu, and Osman Doğan Bulut, Animals, vol. 13, no. 13, 2023. The authors are based at Akdeniz University and Iğdır University, Turkey.
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Not such a comfort — To see how a man’s stress levels and diet might alter his shape, one might give comfort food to a stressed rat and study its penis. Researchers at the State University of […]
“The Nonequilibrium Nature of Culinary Evolution,” by Osame Kinouchi, Rosa W. Diez-Garcia, Adriano J. Holanda, Pedro Zambianchi, and Antonio C. Roque, is one of the research studies featured in the article “Food Formulas and Recipes“, in the special Formulas & Recipes issue of the magazine (Annals of Improbable Research). Read the article online. And if you […]
Eugenie Scott and I had a fun talk, for an online meeting of the Bay Area Skeptics, about the Ig Nobel Prizes. This happened on June 8, 2023. Here’s video:
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Power meringue — Researchers in South Korea and the US have cooked up a recipe for meringue that you can then use to make electrical batteries…. Public relations equation — “It will cost up to $21.5 […]