Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) has joined the Historical Honorary Members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Known as the “Father of Radiology”, he discovered and investigated X-Rays while experimenting with vacuum tubes in 1895. He named them "X-Rays" because they were an unknown form of radiation and he refused to patent his discovery. […]
Tag: Beard
Three cases of discomforting hair in funny places
Further examples of the occasional medical drawbacks of facial hair and of haircuts: “Facial fuzz and funny findings — Facial hair causing otalgia and oropharyngeal pain,” Francis A. Papay [pictured here], Howard L. Levine, and William A. Schiavone, Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, vol. 56, no. 3, 1989, pp. 273-276. The authors report: “Three patients […]
Hair and Moustaches in the Far West (1873 to 1899)
Improbable can find only one academic paper which examines men’s head and facial hair styles in the far western United States between 1873 to 1899. It’s the work of Elaine Pedersen, who is an Associate Professor at the School of Design & Human Environment of Oregon State University. See: Men’s Head and Facial Hair in […]
Lion manes and human beards
Lion manes and human beards. Human beards and lion manes. Say it as many times and as many ways as you like. Then read this essay, if you have interest in both of those things: “Of Lion Manes and Human Beards: Some Unusual Effects of the Interaction between Aggression and Sociality,” D. Caroline Blanchard, Frontiers […]
A wokfull of cockroaches – observing observers
The facial analysis system behind the recently featured ‘Laughing Mirror‘was developed by the Dutch firm VicarVision [* see note below] A description of their system, called ‘FaceReader ™ ‘ was published in Proceedings of Measuring Behavior, 2005 (Wageningen, 30 August – 2 September 2005) ‘The FaceReader: Online facial expression recognition‘ Since then the computer code has […]
Industrial palaces are people, too [animation]
Henning Lederer made this animated version of Fritz Kahn‘s 1927 poster Der Mensch als Industriepalast [Man as Industrial Palace] [vimeo]6505158[/vimeo] (HT Diana Issidorides) BONUS (unrelated, probably): Man forced to eat his beard, he says: (Thanks to investigator Dan Gallo for bringing this to our attention.)
Perceptions of Bearded Men
“Perception of Men’s Personal Qualities and Prospect of Employment As a Function of Facial Hair,” Altay Alves Lino de Souza, Vera B.U. Baiao, and Emma Otta, Psychological Reports, vol. 92, no. 1, February 2003, pp. 201–8. (Thanks to John Bell for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at University of São Paulo, Brazil, explain
Legend of Chrystallographers’ Beards
Inspired by the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men“, investigator Steve Dahms alerts us to a legend about chrystallographers’ beards. One account appears in the study: “Gerhard M.J. Schmidt, 1919-1971“, David Ginsberg, Israel Journal of Chemistry, Vol. 10,1972, pp. 59-72. [Schmidt is pictured here, at right.] The author writes: “Both as […]
The beard-ome & lab aesthetics
This five-minute video conjures up an imaginary genetics of the beard. Best of all, it shows the aesthetics of everyday life in a modern major general laboratory:
Bearded ornithologists (2)
Theobald Johannes Krüper (1829-1921). German by birth. Connoisseur and collector of the avifauna of Greece and Turkey. Collected the Turkish nuthatch near Smyrna (Izmir) in 1862. August von Pelzeln (Vienna) described the species in his honor as Sitta. krueperi. Founder of the bird collection of the Museum of the University of Athens. Still going on […]