A newly issued US patent, awarded to inventor Hyunkap Park, of Siheung-si, South Korea, details an ‘umbilical cord storage doll and set thereof’. “The umbilical cord naturally falls off a baby’s navel after a predetermine period has elapsed since the birth of the baby. Meanwhile, the umbilical cord has a special meaning in that it […]
Tag: doll
Voodoo dolls, the Ig Nobel Prize and why headlines matter in academia
Here’s a voodoo-doll-rich, behind-the-scenes account what happened before and after a researcher (and her team) won an Ig Nobel Prize. Elsevier Connects reports: Voodoo dolls, the Ig Nobel Prize and why headlines matter in academia How psychologist Dr. Lindie Liang captured the world’s attention with her research By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten Many researchers have a […]
Anatomy pedagogy: Skipper, the armed doll that grows breasts
A doll called Skipper, designed to be a “sister” to the more famous Barbie doll, was a moving anatomy lesson to some of the children and adults who played with it. The doll’s most salient feature: when you lift Skipper’s arm, Skipper grows taller, and grows breasts. This video shows that process: Skipper gets a scholarly analysis — […]
Using Voodoo Dolls to Measure Aggression in Married Couples (podcast #98)
Are voodoo dolls and low blood sugar helpful for understanding why married couples squabble? A research study explores that very question, and we explore that study, in 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 discusses a published voodoo-doll-utilizing study (the very study that made the word “hangry” fairly famous). Tufts University biomedical researcher Dany […]
The Parachuting Rag-Doll Experiment
Falling from a great height with a parachute is likely to result in lesser injury than falling from a great height without a parachute, suggests a newly published German medical study. The study is: “Does usage of a parachute in contrast to free fall prevent major trauma?: a prospective randomised-controlled trial in rag dolls,” Patrick […]
How to Creep Out Chimpanzees with a Humanoid Robot Doll
Chimpanzees, in general, have less experience with creepy humanoid robot dolls than humans do. This study perhaps reflects that: “Triggering social interactions: chimpanzees respond to imitation by a humanoid robot and request responses from it,” Marina Davila-Ross, Johanna Hutchinson, Jamie L. Russell, Jennifer Schaeffer, Aude Billard, William D. Hopkins, Kim A. Bard,” Animal Cognition, Volume […]
Towards a taxonomy of teddy bears
New efforts (see below) in France are adding info to the past, isolated attempts to classify the different kinds of teddy bear. The three most celebrated academic studies are: “The Survival of the Cutest: Who’s Responsible for the Evolution of the Teddy Bear?” P.H. Morris, V. Reddy, and R.C. Bunting, Animal Behaviour, vol. 50, 1995, pp. […]
Guidelines against body fluid transmission via CPR manikins
If you are or should be or ever might be in a situation where you might worry or should worry about the transmission of disease via a CPR manikin, this report is for you: “Guidelines for the prevention of disease transmission in the use of CPR manikin,” Committee to Advise The American Red Cross, National […]
Dr Moi and the fateful inflatable doll: Coming to Denmark
The photo below shows Dr. Harald Moi giving his acceptance speech at the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Dr. Moi and Ellen Kleist were honored that year for their cautionary medical report “Transmission of Gonorrhea Through an Inflatable Doll.” Dr. Moi will discuss details at the shows in Aarhus (on Monday and Tuesday, March 26) and […]
Experiments with inflatable & other life-size dolls
A generic life-size doll, with no modifications, was the key element in at least one unplanned experiment — the experiment documented in a 1993 monograph called Transmission of Gonorrhoea Through an Inflatable Doll, published in the journal Genitourinary Medicine. But generally, scientists who conduct planned experiments that rely on life-size dolls prefer to carefully optimise, or […]