This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Too fast, too furious — The Fast & Furious action movies now have a companion in the world of animal study. A team of biologists videoed a furious and fast – well, relatively fast – incident, which they […]
If you prefer not to do your own epiglottis calculations (maybe you fear you lack the mathematical chops to do that well?), this new study may bring cheer: “Development of a Deep Learning-Based Epiglottis Obstruction Ratio Calculation System,” by Hsing-Hao Su and Chuan-Pin Lu, Sensors, 2023. 4. Maybe you are unsure what and where your […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: Mapping black holes — Richard Notley has been wondering down a dark path… and found enlightenment in remarks made by mathematician Roger Penrose (New Scientist, 19 November 2022) about the structure of the universe. He writes: “Roger […]
Enjoy, if you will, Masanori Maeda’s masterful “Über den Nasenhaarbalg bei einigen Säugetieren” [Nasal Hair Follicles in Several Mammals]. It was published in Okajimas Folia Anatomica Japonica, vol. 25, nos. 5-6, 1954, pp. 235-238. Here’s a bit of detail:
Jonathan Strickland takes a detailed half-hour journey through Ig Nobel history, focusing mostly on some of the early technology-related prize-winners, in the Tech Stuff podcast. Strickland vows to do another podcast about some of the later winners. [UPDATE, October 5, 2023]. And in a later episode he takes a further journey.] A list of all […]
On Friday, September 29, we will be doing TWO (2) shows of Improbable Dramatic Readings as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, organized by the MIT Museum. What Luminaries (of various wattage) will each do brief dramatic readings from seemingly absurd, genuine research studies and patents. Some of those studies and patents have won Ig […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Double standards— World Standards Day 2023 will arrive soon, two days after it arrives. As Feedback noted last year (17 September 2022), having double Standards Days is standard behaviour. This year, most of the world will officially celebrate […]
The Nigerian news site ABTC raises a curious question about 2024 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Bob Glasgow: Bob Glasgow children: Does Bob Glasgow have kids? By Seth Frimpong …Glasgow, born on February 28, 1942, in Stephenville, Texas, was a trained lawyer who ventured into politics, eventually becoming a member of the Senate of Texas. […]
Ig Nobel Prize winner Jim Knowlton, who won his prize in 1992 for creating the educational poster “Penises of the Animal Kingdom”, figures in a report today by John Kelly in the Washington Post: A real double take: Readers share their cases of mistaken identity … In the early 1990s, Brian Knowlton’s father, James Knowlton, was a professor […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine is about the new Ig Nobel Prize winners. The Feedback column was created and edited by John Hoyland. I first knew Feedback (and John’s work) as a subscriber to New Scientist. Every year the column would have an especially fun and interesting writeup of the new Ig […]