Category: Research News

Ben Goldacre of The Guardian has just announced this year’s crop of Bad Science Award winners. One of our favorites is Dr. Ali ("Britain’s top integrated health expert") of Harley Street, whose eminence and apparent lack of an MD degree have been remarked upon by admirers and passers-by. (Thanks to Linda Rosa for bringing this […]

Are homeopathic medicines truly medicines? Officially, um, yes. Now they are. So says the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. In a ruling published on October 27, 2004, the Bureau did a flip-flop, reversing its previous opinion. Prior to October 27, the Bureau said that homeopathic medicines are, more or less, foods. But henceforth, […]

Thanks Tails add a happily canine attribute to the traditionally rather un-doglike automobile. (Thanks to Mark Dionne and David Weinberger for bringing this to our attention.)

Vegan erotica is one of the less celebrated new fields in interdisciplinary research and development. Ig Nobel Prize winners Jack and Rexella Van Impe have produced a video called Animals in Heaven? that some may consider to be a classic in the field.

Investigator Genevieve Reynolds stumbled across a treatise about literary construction technique.

The recent U.S. Presidential election is — indisputably — characterized by heavy-handed mathematical manipulation. Agorithmically speaking, the result was all too predictable. Investigator (and algorithm co-devisor) Eric Schulman, of Alexandria Virginia, triumphantly, if humbly, explains: Unlike the Redskins Algorithm (the incumbent political party wins the presidency of the United States if the Washington Redskins American […]

Some scientists scoff at the notion that many sheep have keen intelligence. A recent report by the BBC may give them pause. (Thanks to Jim Howe for bringing this to our attention.)

The jet-powered wheelchair is a reality, so they say, and so is its encounter with Miss BMFA, 25yr old Renata Budginate from Lithuania. (Thanks to Tom Ulrich for bringing this to our attention.)

The video of a cat adjusting to zero gravity recalls the article “Does a Cat Always Land on Its Feet?” which was published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Improbable Research (and which was featured on the cover). (Thanks to Mark Dionne and Boing-Boing — which also spotlighted the Ig Nobel Prize-winning frog […]

A reminder: next month the World Toilet Summit will convene in Beijing. It’s a three-day affari, on November 17-19, held under the auspices of the World Toilet Organization. Last year’s event proved to be photogenic. (You may want to start a toilet association in your area. If so, the WTO is willing and eager to […]