This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Cola: a swell tale — … If you are a male mouse who drinks lots of Pepsi or Coca-Cola, and if you mainly enjoy reading manly adventure stories, get yourself a copy of the latest write-up from […]
David Jones some years ago assaulted humanity’s embarrassing lack of understanding of why moving bicycles are so stable. Jones performed a series of experiments, from which he learned some surprising things. He revealed them in this article: “The Stability of the Bicycle,” David E.H. Jones, Physics Today, April 1970, pp. 34-40. (Thanks to Catherine Klauss […]
A moving bicycle, when no one is riding it, is more stable than many people expect, but it is not completely stable. Here’s a curious look into the how and why of that: “It Takes Two Neurons to Ride a Bicycle,” Matthew Cook, at Caltech, demonstration at NIPS 4 (2004). Cook explains: Past attempts to […]
A ‘Dandy Horse’ was the colloquial name given to a primitive pedal-less bicycle which was a fashionable mode of transport in Europe around 1819. Fast forward to 2008, when a US patent was granted for an ‘Apparatus for Shifting Weight from a Runner to a Wheeled Frame ‘ – which, at first glance seems remarkably similar. […]
This month’s Engineering Challenge competition: Design a bicycle for a flea. Please send your completed design, with test results (include a clear, undoctored video please) to: Improbable Engineering Challenge: Flea Cycle ℅ Annals of Improbable Research
Here’s Frans de Waal talking about some jackdaws that, when Frans was a child, excited him in a way that led to his eventual unusual career. Frans studies chimps, bonobos, macaques, capuchin monkeys, and other of our close relatives. He wants to understand how and why they (and we) do some of the impressive things […]
If you are a male bicyclist—as is more likely in some nations than in others—consider the implied warning in this new medical study. Men of The Netherlands, men of Denmark, men of Germany—Beware! The study is “Effect of Oscillation on Perineal Pressure in Cyclists: Implications for Micro-Trauma,” Thomas Sanford, Adam J. Gadzinski, Thomas Gaither, E. […]
John Stevenson, writing on the road.cc web site, explains how money circulates: “Stuck in the middle of nowhere with a gert big gash in a lightweight tyre? The Bank of England Five Pound Note is an excellent, robust tyre boot that will get you home, and then you can pop out and spend it on […]
The Bicycle Taxidermy blog documents taxidermy’d bicycle remains: Crafted in London; the taxidermy service mounts a client’s steed on a scorched or bleached European oak plaque made by Mick, a local joiner. Chrome mounting brackets fix the stem above a stainless steel epitaph etched in Argyll, Scotland, the plaque denotes the horned beasts model, pet name, […]
A German/Austrian study suggests that even heavy marijuana smoking has little affect on bicyclists’ bicycling performance. The study is: “The effect of cannabis on regular cannabis consumers’ ability to ride a bicycle,” Benno Hartung, Holger Schwender, Eckhard H. Roth, Florence Hellen, Nona Mindiashvili, Annette Rickert, Stefanie Ritz-Timme [pictured here], Almut Grieser, Fabio Monticelli, Thomas Daldrup, International Journal […]