Category: Research News

Veiled women are protecting more than their modesty — they are also less prone to nose and throat cancers because their veils screen out viruses, a Canadian doctor was quoted Friday as saying. Professor Kamal Malaker said women in Saudi Arabia, many of whom wear a full face-covering veil, suffered a low rate of the […]

The first major international seminar which drew more than 80 participants from across the globe to discuss the depth and profundity of the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) agreed that GNH combines spirituality with secular science of technology and that the global community should protect and enhance it. So says a report from Bhutan, […]

Group wiggling, shrunken heads, and the incomprehensibility of soprano singers — research about all these topics is highlighted in the “AIRhead Research Review” column in the current issue (vol. 10, no. 2) of the Annals of Improbable Research. Read the column here.

Hospitals can be good places to catch cold or other illnesses. They can also, it seems, be good places to catch fire. Investigator Joanne Berger has alerted us to a snazzily written guide to preventing hospital bed fires. The document is titled, simply, “Safety Tips for Preventing Hospital Bed Fires” and is published by the […]

There is much to be learned from things that don’t work. The Museum of Unworkable Devices is a good place to begin learning these things in earnest. See it here. (Thanks to Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)

The University of Leicester has a Celebrity Research Group. The group says “This is an intriguing, largely unexplored area of research.” They ar at least 50% correct in that, and possibly more than 50% correct. The group is now conducting what it calls a “celebrity survey,” which you can find at the URL they have […]

Beauty is valuable. There is ample published research to back up the researchers’ belief that they could publish their research. An eye-catching, tidily-summed-up collection of that research appears in the “Beauty Value Research Review” that is part of AIR‘s Special Beauty Issue. Read it here.

“What is a control meat loaf?” asks investigator Larry O’Hanlon. O’Hanlon encountered the phrase while reading absttracts from the July 2004 issue (vol. 67, no. 3 ) of the journal Meat Science. The abstract for the article “Quality characteristics of loaves from buffalo meat, liver and vegetables” explains that: Different types of loaves were evaluated: […]

ITHACA, N.Y. — Heart attack victims who make it to the hospital in time to receive medical attention are four to five times more likely to survive compared with those who don’t make it to a hospital promptly, according to a new Cornell University study. So begins a press release issued by Cornell University. Read […]

A Mrs. Hodges of Sylacauga, Alabama, is reported to be the first human being directly struck by a falling meteorite. Her story, is told in part here. Mrs. Hodges’s first name has been variously reported to be either “Hulitt” or “Ann.” Thanks to investigator Benjy Berglas for bringing this to our attention. Investigator Berglas also […]