Sometimes a study’s title translates awkwardly from one language into another. Here is such a case, with Chinese making an awkward transition into English: “On The Creation Of Piano Music For Children From Tropical Fish By Zhao Xi,” Jing Zhang, Huangzhong-Journal of Wuhan Music Conservatory, January 2003. “The paper show the writer’s opinions on creation […]
Zowie: “Wow”, the DNA code, interstellar communications
Many strands of thought weave together in this study: “The ‘Wow! signal’ of the terrestrial genetic code,” Vladimir I. shCherbak, Maxim A. Makukov, arXiv:1303.6739v1, March 27, 2013. (Thanks to investigator Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Kazakh National University and the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, both in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, […]
The Coffin Blew Up (and maybe something about why it did)
This newspaper report gives public details about an embarrassing explosion: “The Coffin Blew Up“, The Meridan [Missouri, USA] Daily Republican, July 21, 1890. (Thanks to investigator Erwin Kompanje for bringing this to our attention.) Here is a reproduction of the entire article: BONUS (mostly unrelated): The 2012 Ig Nobel Prize for medicine honored the […]
Waiters’ tips and the weather: Analysis of a possible connection
Do waiters and waitresses get better tips on sunny days? In 1979, a groundbreaking experiment by professor Michael Cunningham (currently at the University of Louisville) suggested the answer might be ‘Yes’. (reference : Weather, mood, and helping behavior: Quasi experiments with the sunshine Samaritan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 11, pp. 1947-1956.) But […]