Previous research has focused on whether male bicyclers with badly-positioned bike seats might be hurting their manhood. Turning to the other side of things, now researchers say riding a bike with the handlebars lower than the seat decreases sensation in women cyclists’ genitals. So their time in the saddle—the bike saddle, that is—may be diminishing their […]
The vampire spiders and the transplanted mosquito heads
This tweet by May Berenbaum will lead you, if you let it, to an entomological adventure: Testing vampire spider preferences by transplanting male mosquito heads on female mosquito bodies. It’s alive!! See J Exp Biol 6/7 Berenbaum refers, tersely, to this study: “The discerning predator: decision rules underlying prey classification by a mosquito-eating jumping spider,” Ximena […]
Cryptography Challenge: Boris Yeltsin
This month’s Cryptography Challenge is to: (1) analyze this short video, which presents a song ostensibly about “Boris Yeltsin”, the words to which consist entirely of repetitions of the words “Boris Yeltsin”; then (2) answer this question: Is there a coded message? BONUS: If there is a coded message, decode it. If there’s not, don’t. […]
Honestly: Ig Nobel winner’s new book about dishonesty
Ig Nobel Prize winner Dan Ariely has a new book out. It’s called The Honest Truth About Dishonesty — How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. Catch him live on his book tour (which today arrives in first Cambridge, then Boston, Massachusetts) Ariely shared (with Rebecca L. Waber, Baba Shiv and Ziv Carmon) the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize […]