This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here’s how they begin: Curiously Meta—Coltan Scrivner’s curiosity about morbid curiosity is ushering him to higher and higher realms. He wrote his PhD thesis on the subject and joined the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University, Denmark. Scrivner defines morbid curiosity as “a motivation […]
Economically speaking, should one look up to the businesspeople who build skyscrapers, or look down at them? Calculation is involved in reaching the answer obtained in this study: “A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Skyscrapers,” Robert W. Helsley and William C. Strange, Journal of Urban Economics, vol. 64, no. 1, July 2008, pp. 49-64. The authors explain: […]
Two Ig-related events this month. The Heinz Oberhummer award, for “outstanding science communication”, will be given to the Ig Nobel Prizes on Nov 24, in Vienna, Austria (and webcast) at 7:30 pm (Central European Time). On Nov 25, Science Friday will broadcast specially edited highlights (and a discussion with Ira Flatow and Marc Abrahams) of […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has two segments. Here’s how they begin: Physics vs Mona Lisa — The wood and smile of the Mona Lisa fascinate scientists. Not wooden smile. Wood and smile. A new study in the Journal of Cultural Heritage reveals how researchers have spent 18 years exploring the wooden panel on which Leonardo da […]