This month’s selected study about Coca-Cola in a cat is: “Endoscopic administration of Coca-Cola for medical management of a wedged intestinal trichobezoar in a cat,” Savanah Wilson, Devin Dobbins, Lukas Kawalilak, and Joseph C Parambeth, The Canadian Veterinary Journal, vol. 64, no. 8, 2023, pp. 747-752.
Here’s another, very specific study of the effects, side-effects, and sometimes-wild fears about popular, refreshing beverages: “No harmful effect of different Coca-cola beverages after 6 months of intake on rat testes,” Ľubomíra Tóthová, Július Hodosy, Kathryn Mettenburg, Helena Fábryová, Alexandra Wagnerová, Janka Bábíčková, Monika Okuliarová, Michal Zeman, and Peter Celec, Food and Chemical Toxicology, vol. 62, 2013, […]
One of the key (B-Team) advisors to Sandia Lab’s report into Expert Judgement on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant [see : Atomic Berms, previous Improbable article] was David B. Givens, Ph.D., now Director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies, and lecturer at the School of Professional Studies at […]
Dr. Deborah Anderson is one of many past Ig Nobel Prize winners who will return to take a bow at this year’s ceremony and help honor the new winners. The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers […]
A new study about the effect of walnuts begs comparison with the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Effect of ‘Coke’ on Sperm Motility“. The new study is: “Walnuts Improve Semen Quality in Men Consuming a Western-style Diet: Randomized Control Dietary Intervention Trial,” Wendie A. Robbins [pictured here], Lin Xun, Leah Z. FitzGerald, Samantha Esguerra, Susanne M. Henning, […]
Coca Cola® may not be much use as a contraceptive, but it may well be effective in assessing the environmental impact of bioaccessible Uranium (U). Particularly contamination around mines, nuclear reprocessing plants and waste disposal facilities. Authors Bernd Lottermoser, Ewald Schnug and Silvia Haneklaus explain the concept in the 2011 book The New Uranium Mining […]
An economics paper explains, perhaps, the epic endurance of nickel-a-bottle Coca-Cola: “‘The real thing’: nominal price rigidity of the nickel Coke, 1886-1959“, Daniel Levy and Andrew Young, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, (2004). (Thanks to Sandeep Baliga for bringing this to our attention.) Levy and Young write: We report that the price of a 6.5oz […]
Investigator Steve Golgan alerts us to the existence of a theme song, created in the 1960s, that seems a prescient tribute to the winners of the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize for chemistry. That prize was awarded to Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New […]
The Providentia blog describes one of first great court clashes between a modern foodstuff manufacturer and modern food safety advocates. The case, known as the U.S. vs. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca Cola case, featured (in its records) the phrase “…Mr. Elliott Cheatham for plaintiff in error.” Providentia says: It was quite a […]
Despite the Ig Nobel Prize-winning (chemistry prize, 2008) research — done by groups on two continents — demonstrating that Coca-Cola is NOT an effective contraceptive, people still rely on it to prevent pregnancy. A report from a Vietnamese news source says [we present a rough Google machine translation here]: Odd way of contraceptive use, young […]