This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Time for love — Valentine’s Day celebrates coupling. Alan McWilliam tells Feedback about an offer he received, before the most recent Valentine’s Day, from a US-based biotechnology company. It couples charm with other qualities. Alan says: “I […]
This advice about cats, from an artificial duck farmer — a farmer who raised ducks under artificial conditions — was published in 1906, in the book Natural and Artificial Duck Culture by James Rankin: Do Not Have Neighbors Too Near. Another source of discomfort was our neighbors’ cats. Now, we are eminently social in our […]
A new, stimulating study of cats is aimed at assisting human women. The study is: “Vaginal Lubrication and Pressure Increase Induced by Pudendal Nerve Stimulation in Cats,” Jialiang Chen, Yihua Zhong, Jicheng Wang, Bing Shen, Zhijun Shen, Jonathan Beckel, William de Groat, Christopher Chermansky, Changfeng Tai, Journal of Sexual Medicine, epub 2022. The authors, at […]
“Not the Cat’s Meow? The Impact of Posing with Cats on Female Perceptions of Male Dateability” [by Lori Kogan and Shelly Volsche, published in Animals, vol. 10, no. 6, June 9, 2020, E1007] is a featured study in “Cats Research: Girls, and Men and Datability“, which is a featured article in the special Women (and Men) issue of […]
Here’s recorded video of last week’s event, the first in a collaborative series by The Conversation and Improbable Research. The goal in these: Two researchers, in different fields, explore each other’s worlds a little bit. “(Improbable) Conversation: Physics and Psychology of Cats“, with physicist (and Ig Nobel Prize winner, for exploring the question “Can a Cat Be […]
Join us this Thursday for the premiere of a new kind of conversation: Two researchers, in different fields, explore each other’s worlds a little bit. Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, will compere. Here’s who and what: “(Improbable) Conversation: Physics and Psychology of Cats“, with physicist (and Ig Nobel Prize winner, for […]
What can one conclude from playing music for a few stressed cats? A new study suggests the answer: “Evaluation of Music Therapy to Reduce Stress in Hospitalized Cats,” Juliane Eg Paz, Fernanda Va da Costa, Luciana N Nunes, Eduardo R Monteiro, and Jenifer Jung, Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, epub 2021. The authors, at […]
Unlike dogs, cats, rabbits, bats, donkeys, zebras, gerbils and very many other mammals, most humans have great difficulty in independently orienting their outer ears ( pinnae ) towards sounds of interest. But what if we could? This study demonstrates that by opening and closing the human pinna, we can change the direction of […]
Some of the old experiments at or near the Air Force research labs in Dayton, Ohio, are on display in this video. The video comes with this info, added by someone somewhere at some time: Coverage of research at the Aerospace Medical Division HQ 657Oth Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories including scenes of F-104 seat ejection; […]
What are your pet fears? The review column “Cats Research: Do Cats Eat Human Remains?” is a but one of many featured items in the special Forensics issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. The article is free to download: