Today the Ig Nobel Prizes made another appearance on the Jeopardy! TV game show, this time as an answer. It refers to the 2006 Ig Nobel Biology Prize, which concerned malaria mosquitoes, human feet, and Limburger cheese. Note: The Jeopardy! wording refers to the cheese as being German, but Limburg, home of the fragrant cheese, […]
A new press release demonstrates how to draw attention (as yours is drawn right now) to a press release by including the words “wine”, “cheese”, and “cognitive” in the headline: Diet modifications — including more wine and cheese — may help reduce cognitive decline, study suggests Date: December 10, 2020 Source: Iowa State University Summary: […]
The Bavarian Pickle-Juice Experiment is using salty waste-water from pickle-making to keep roads from becoming icy. Ig Nobel Prize winner Elisabeth Oberzaucher alerts us to this, with the comment “Waste from the food industry keeps roads ice-free – I’m curious to see what comes out during the testing phase.” The publication Geo reports [in German, […]
“Bart Knols, the entomologist who seduced the mosquito mosquito with cheese” says the headline of this Telemetro [Panama] profile of Ig Nobel Prize winner Bart Knols and his innovations against malaria. The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize for biology was awarded to Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical […]
“The irreversible phase separation of fondue is a common issue and has ruined countless dinners.” This state of affairs has been compounded by the fact that : “Many half-truths persist in Swiss kitchens on how to prepare the perfect fondue.” So explain Pascal Bertsch, Laura Savorani, and Peter Fischer of the Institute of Food Nutrition […]
Smells have effects on hair follicles and sounds have effects on the taste of cheese, sometimes, suggest two recent—but not necessarily related studies. The sound-and-hair study is described in LiveScience (thanks to Francesca Bewer for bringing this to our attention): Like your nose, your hair can detect odors. In a new study, researchers found that […]
“Can music make cheese tastier? Swiss Emmental maker experiments” is the headline of an AFP report in the Japan Times. The main scientist doing the research is Dr. Beat Wampfler, a veterinarian [pictured here]. Here’s some detail: [A] Swiss cheese-maker has embarked on an experiment to test the impact of music on Emmental, one of […]
Anyone with cheese problems might consider reading the book Cheese Problems Solved, edited by Paul L.H. McSweeney, published by Elsevier in 2007. McSweeney is a Professor of Food Chemistry in the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College, Cork, Ireland. Readers of cheese detective stories might especially relish the report “How May the ‘Toad-Skin’ and Cat-Hair’ Defects […]
The Chetham Library blog reveals a bit of cheese-centric history, with the headline “Is cheese rational?“: John Byrom, who owned this little manuscript before it came to the Library, was an enthusiast of all things mystical. An earlier reader seems less than convinced by the arguments our scribe expresses. As the argument builds to the […]
Ig Nobel Prize winner Bart Knols‘s sure-footed malaria-mosquito research is featured in a new Discovery Channel documentary called “Mosquito.” The New York Times celebrates “Mosquito,” contrasting it with the “frivolous” Shark Week films that the TV network is famed for: “Deadlier Than Sharks: A Documentary Spotlights the Mosquito.” Here’s a promotional chunk of the film: Knols and Ruurd […]