mini-Annals of Improbable Research (“mini-AIR”)
June 2022, issue number 2022-06. ISSN 1076-500X.
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: The Special WOMEN issue
03 Uses of Urine: Hoary Marmots
04 Throw a Paper Airplane at the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
05 Ig Nobel Exhibition in Taiwan
06 Limerick Challenge: Uses of Urine: Wheat Testing
07 Licking Rock Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Folding Chair, Chocolate, Goat, Otter
09 Uses of Urine: Milk Bottle Testing
20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
32 — Contact Info (*)
33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: The Special WOMEN issue
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR)
is overflow detritus from
the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The special WOMEN (AND MEN) issue (vol. 28, no. 3) is out, continuing to infect the populace. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
The special MEN (AND WOMEN) issue (vol. 28, no. 4) is in prep.
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
<https://gumroad.com/improbable>
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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03 Uses of Urine: Hoary Marmots
This month’s possibly-randomly-selected research study of the month is:
“Hoary Marmots Attracted to Human Urine Sites,” Jeuns F. Teultvrar, Northwestern Naturalist, vol. 70, 1989, pp. 36-37. <https://tinyurl.com/47p74jdu> The author reports:
“Marmots typically move about while feeding, looking up about once a minute to reconnoiter their surroundings as they chew, before moving on a few steps. This paper presents new data on hoary marmot feeding behavior at human urine sites.”
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04 Throw a Paper Airplane at the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
You or your institution can submit a video to be included in the ceremony — The deadline for that is July 31, 2022. We especially welcome schools and libraries (feel free to display your school or library name blatantly, if you wish!). Have everyone aim their paper airplane at the camera. Keep your video brief — ten seconds max. An iPhone video works fine. Landscape orientation is best, but portrait is okay, too. Submit your video to <marc ATTTTTT improbable DOTTTTT com>
Paper plane invitation video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHbGrHwnz4I
2022 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony web page
https://improbable.com/ig/2022-ceremony/
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05 Ig Nobel Exhibition in Taiwan
A special Ig Nobel Prizes exhibition at the National Taiwan Science Education Center, Taipei, Taiwan will run from June 25 to September 11, 2022.
Event web page:
https://www.ntsec.gov.tw/user/Article.aspx?a=4110
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06 Limerick Challenge: Uses of Urine: Wheat Testing
This month’s RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
“Nutrient Recovery from Human Urine Using Pretreated Zeolite and Struvite Precipitation in Combination with Freezing‐Thawing and Plant Availability Tests on Common Wheat,” Zsófia Ganrot, Andreas Slivka, and Göran Dave, CLEAN–Soil, Air, Water, vol. 36, no. 1, 2008, pp. 45-52. h<ttps://doi.org/10.1002/clen.200700074> The authors report:
“Freezing had a positive effect on the nutrient concentration…. The supernatants from the frozen treatments and from the unfrozen and washed zeolites were much less toxic than those of the original urine. The minerals acted as slow-release fertilizers in climate chamber tests on spring wheat.”
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
WHEAT TESTING LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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07 Licking Rock Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month’s Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
“Eating Fossils,” Jan Zalasiewicz, The Paleontological Association Newsletter, no. 96, November 2017. <https://www.palass.org/publications/newsletter/eating-fossils>
Winning limerickicist A.S. KASWELL writes:
You know that licking the rock
Is their favorite method, ad hoc,
To taste if a thing
Has quite the right zing
For flavoring fossil-soup stock.
This month’s take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
There is only one way to assay
Lithoidal things found every day.
Advanced technical tools
Are the province of fools.
Licking rocks. There is no better way.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Folding Chair, Chocolate, Goat, Otter
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed…
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* A Complex Analysis of the Unfolding Folding Chair Situation
* Effect of Chocolate Packaging on the Mind of a First-Time Consumer
* Catching Up with Two Humans Who Lived, for a Time, as a Goat and an Otter, Respectively
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
INSTAGRAM: <https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/>
PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>
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09 Uses of Urine: Milk Bottle Testing
This month’s slightly-less-randomly selected research report is:
“A New Babcock Milk Testing Bottle: Adapted for Testing Small Amounts of Milk with the Aid of the Ordinary Urine Centrifuge,” Ross C. Whitman, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 47, no. 3, 1906, pp. 204-205. <https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/458967>
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition in Taiwan Jun 25-Sep 11, 2022
Council Bluffs Library, Iowa, USA Aug 18, 2022
Chicon, Chicago Sep TBA, 2022
32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Sep 15, 2022
Café Scientifique, Muret, France Oct 12, 2022
Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition in Japan Autumn TBA, 2022
[All live events in 2021 and 2022 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]
For details and additional events, see
<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>
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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,
in PDF form.
It’s packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.
<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($5 each)
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)
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31 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR, see the links at the end of this email.
ARCHIVES: <https://improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/>
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Cambridge, MA, USA
Twitter: @ImprobResearch
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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2022, Annals of Improbable Research
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