The knifing of pumpkins, an innocent-seeming yet carefully planned act of mutilation, sometimes results (accidentally or otherwise) in sprays, bits and smatterings of human, as well as vegetable, gore. In such cases, blood –human blood – flows, drips and coagulates. A hands-on experiment, or rather, an experiment on hands, in 2004, tried to determine the […]
Category: Extra-Improbable columns
Our columns in other publications — The ‘Feedback’ column in New Scientist magazine, beginning in September 2022, and the “Improbable Research”column that ran for 13 years in The Guardian newspaper.
Economists’ advice for bank robbers
When economists train their sights on robbers, the point traditionally is to study those who loot on the grandest, most legal scale and who are called “financiers”, and also (if there be consulting fees) to assist those persons. Economists Barry Reilly [pictured here] of the University of Sussex, and Neil Rickman and Robert Witt of the University of Surrey, went against […]
The scientist who says he rose up against crime
Prof John Hagelin‘s decision not to run against Mitt Romney and Barack Obama left this year’s US presidential race without a major candidate who is a scientist and who acknowledges – publicly – his ability to both counteract gravity and prevent crime. Two decades ago, Hagelin and a team of fellow scientists performed a bold experiment. […]
Most Bad Singers Aren’t Tone Deaf
Despite what you may have heard, acoustical analysis suggests that (1) most people are not horrible singers, and (2) most horrible singers are not tone deaf – they’re just horrible singers. In 2007, Isabelle Peretz and Jean-François Giguère of the University of Montreal, and Simone Dalla Bella, of the University of Finance and Management in […]