The Apostrophe’s Greatest Champion Has Died

Sad news from Boston, England: John Richards, Ig Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, has died. He taught the world that proofreading is a form of moral philosophy. David Seymour reports, in the Boston Standard: Tribute paid to Boston man and founder of internationally famous Apostrophe Protection Society following his death, aged 97 […]

Chili Pepper Consumption and Mortality in Italian Adults

In the wake of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies about whether eating Italian pizza in Italy might lengthen life, comes a new study about Italians who eat chili peppers: “Chili Pepper Consumption and Mortality in Italian Adults,” Marialaura Bonaccio, Augusto Di Castelnuovo, Simona Costanzo, Emilia Ruggiero, Amalia De Curtis, Mariarosaria Persichillo, Claudio Tabolacci, Francesco Facchiano, […]

Mean Age of Death (MAD) of Russian academic researchers [study]

Are you a professional researcher engaged in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, economics, medicine or biology? Are you Russian? Are you a man? Would you like to know your (likely) mean age of death (MAD)? If so, look no further than the journal Seriya 16. Biologiya. 2016;(4):12-18. (in Russian). Where you will find details […]

Leaders’ inspirational appeal increases post-mortem (new study)

“There is a great deal of interest in understanding what leaders can do to increase their charisma.” And a radical new concept on charisma-enhancement is presented in The Leadership Quarterly, Sept. 2016 – sadly for aspiring leaders, it involves their death. “In the present research, we seek to advance our understanding of the nature and […]

Cereal Killer

Murder aforethought be described in this study, which focuses on a particular kind of cereal killer—one that strikes from within: “Programmed cell death in cereal aleurone,” Angelika Fath [pictured here], Paul Bethke, Jennifer Lonsdale, Roberto Meza-Romero and Russel Jones, Plant Molecular Biology, 2000 Oct;44(3):255-66. The authors, at the University of California, Berkeley, report: “Progress in […]

An authoritative answer to the coffee/health question

A question may be difficult (or impossible) to really answer, but that difficulty does not prevent authoritative people from supplying authoritative answers. A November 16, 2015 press release brews up a new authoritative answer to the question “Is drinking coffee good or bad for your health”: Moderate coffee drinking may lower risk of premature death […]