How is a computer programmer like a dead salmon?

One statement, at least, in a June 5, 2020 press release would be hard to dispute: “Our goal was to develop a completely new approach to better understand the cognitive processes involved in programming.” The press release, issued by the Chemnitz University of Technology, comes with the headline “Programming ‘language’: Brain scans reveal coding uses […]

The Deposition of Airborne Droplets on Dead House-flies [study]

When it comes to the question of the optimum droplet diameter for deposition on dead flies (in woodland), there aren’t many pertinent research papers. Possibly only one. A 2009 study from R. T. Jarman of Chesterford Park Research Station, UK, recounts attempts, by experiment, to find out. “An experimental laboratory study of the deposition of […]

The dead are rising up against their national leaders

Led by Ig Nobel Prize winner Lal Bihari, the dead are rising up against their national leaders. Here’s a look back at notable happenings in 2019. The Times of India reported, on January 19, 2019: In Varanasi, ‘living dead’ to contest against PM Modi If Prime Minister Narendra Modi decides to contest the upcoming Lok […]

‘Necro Advertising’ – the pros and cons [new study]

They are known, in advertising circles as ‘Delebs’ (deceased celebrities) . . . “Unbeknown to them, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen and Gene Kelly, among others, recently presented products in ads for high- and low-equity brands.” A new paper in the Journal of Business Ethics describes experiments which have, for the first time, examined […]

Dead salmon, again in the service of science

Just a few years after dead salmon helped neuroscientists analyze data more carefully, other dead salmon are helping other scientists better understand how trees grow. The neuroscience salmon figured in the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: An argument for multiple comparisons correction,” Craig M. Bennett, Abigail […]