When you hobnob with Slovakian shepherds, don’t mention wolves. A new study called Mitigating Carnivore-Livestock Conflict in Europe: Lessons from Slovakia, says: “Compared to other sectors of society shepherds had the most negative attitudes, particularly towards wolves.” Wolves are again roaming the forests of Slovakia. They were almost wiped out in the mid-20th century, then reappeared […]
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.
“George Washington: He Liked to Count Things”
“Of all the presidents we have had, George Washington was the only who really counted.” That single sentence with its double meaning comes at the end of a four-page monograph published in 1978 in the Alabama Journal of Mathematics. The report’s title is, George Washington: He Liked to Count Things. The author Pete Casazza, a mathematician […]
Postcoital Penis Cleaning in Budongo Chimps
The authors of a study called High Frequency of Postcoital Penis Cleaning in Budongo Chimpanzees do not beat about the bush. “We report on postcoital penis cleaning in chimpanzees,” they write. “In penis cleaning, leaves are employed as ‘napkins’ to wipe clean the penis after sex. Alternatively, the same cleaning motion can be done without leaves, simply […]
The Effect of Swear Words on Referees
Do swear words have predictable effects on football referees? A team of Austrian scientists tackles that question in a study called May I Curse a Referee? Swear Words and Consequences. Stefan Stieger, of the University of Austria, together with Andrea Praschinger and Christine Pomikal, who describe themselves as “independent scientists”, published their report in the Journal of Sports […]