Fifty Shades, by Gray [podcast 76]

A researcher named Gray and his research about combinations of clothing — that’s the possibly vexing heart of this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams  — with dramatic readings by Harvard physicist Melissa Franklin — tells about: Fifty shades, by Gray— “The Science of Style: In Fashion, Colors Should Match […]

“Evidence to suggest” suggestive behavior in nightclubs

This study required keep, persistent observatory behavior (or behaviour) on the part of the researchers: “Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds,” Colin A. Hendrie [pictured here], Helena D. Mannion and Georgina K. Godfrey, Behaviour, vol. 146, 2009, pp. 1331-1348. (Thanks to Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.) The […]

Flamingo-spurred matched Featherstones, for 35 years

This photo shows Don and Nancy Featherstone, wearing matching outfits, at the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. (Mike Benveniste took the photo.) The Featherstones have come to nearly every Ig Nobel ceremony since Donald was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for art, for creating the plastic pink flamingo. For 35 years, the Featherstones have […]

Which Kinds of Products Produce Which Kinds of Genitourinary injuries When

The data in this study indicate that, on a gross society basis, male parts are more often injured by products than are female parts, and that sporting goods are often involved, though more often for younger males than older ones, and that, sporting good aside, zippers are often implicated. “Product Related Adult Genitourinary Injuries Treated […]

How to: Pants specifications

Here are two different methods for specifying clothing size and shape. First, a Workman-like approach: “Body measurement specifications for fit models as a factor in clothing size variation,” Jane E. Workman, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, September 1991 vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 31-36. Second, an American presidential approach, as lovingly described in words and […]