Dr. Elena Bodnar‘s 2009 Ig Nobel Prize-winning Emergency Bra may be the most spectacular and fashionable instance of brassiere design and protective-face-mask design intersecting. But it is not the first. The 3M company’s N95 mask grew from an-early-1960s bra-cup design by Sara Little Turnbull, according to reports (“How One Woman Inspired The Design For The […]
Tag: brassiere
Ten Years Ago and Again at AAAS: The Emergency Bra
Ten years ago, an emergency defense against airborne viruses (and much else) starred in the Improbable Research session at the Annual Meeting of the AAAS (Association for the Advancement of Science), held that year (2011) in Washington, DC. Johnathan Gitlin wrote about it—and took part in the event—for Ars Technica: At this point, forgetting the […]
Van Der Waals bra (new patent)
“[…] brassieres (primarily strapless brassieres and but also those with straps), dresses, swimsuits, socks, tops and other articles of clothing (or the like) have a tendency to fall down or off […]” – explains a new (Aug 2016) US patent. The novel methodology for holding them up makes use of intermolecular electrostatic attractive forces known […]
A logistical support bra for regulating eating behavior
BBC News reports “Microsoft working on a smart bra to measure mood.” The researchers, some of whom are at Microsoft Research, others at the University of Rochester, NY, USA and at the University of Southampton, UK, themselves report details in a paper: “Food and Mood: Just-in-Time Support for Emotional Eating,” Erin A. Carroll [pictured here], Mary Czerwinski, […]
Life-saving brassieres: Yet another example
The history of life-saving brassieres has yet another chapter, this one a first-person narrative written by Jessica Bruinsmain in The Guardian: Experience: My bra saved my life ‘I crashed against rock, barely stopping myself from rolling straight off the ledge into the valley below’… The previous chapter — a chapter still unfolding — concerns Dr. […]
Dr. Bodnar’s new bra. It includes a radiation sensor.
Dr. Elena Bodnar, inventor of the brassiere that in an emergency can be converted in to a pair of protective face masks (for which she was awarded the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize in public health) has enhanced her invention. This week Dr. Bodnar introduced the Rad Emergency Bra, which incorporates a radiation sensor: BONUS: Video […]
Improbable TV: “The Tay Bridge Disaster” in Ukrainian
Here’s a new episode — #McG-002, “”The Tay Bridge Disaster” with Dr. Elena Bodnar — of the Improbable Research TV series. It’s the 2nd of many episodes featuring the bad poetry of William Topaz McGonagall. William Topaz McGonagall, who died in 1902, is widely regarded as the worst poet ever to write in the English language. The […]
Terry Jones takes on technology
Terry Jones, of Monty Python and other fame, interviewed by The Observer on the subject of technology. (The unrelated photo below shows Mr. Jones assisting Dr. Elena Bodnar, inventor of the brassiere that in an emergency can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks. That demonstration happened on the 2010 Ig Nobel […]
How the emergency bra got its straps
At the Ig Nobel ceremony, you took off the Emergency Bra you were wearing and put one of the masks on Nobel Prize–winning New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman. He looked freaked out! Well, that first prototype didn’t have any adjustable straps. I put it on Paul Krugman and it barely fit his head. […]
1st report about Bodnar’s invention for men
The Boston Herald became the first press organization to report on Dr. Elena Bodnar’s new invention — the counterpart device for men of Ig Nobel Prize-winning earlier invention, the brassiere-that-in-an-emergency-converts-into-a-pair-of-protective-face-masks. The new invention is a men’s dress shirt that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a single protective facemask. Dr. Bodnar publicly unveiled […]