Intentional cattiness, Yarnlike supercapacitors, Measuring fingers and addiction, The Denver sniff test

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Intentional cattiness — When cats are forced to endure a crush of mass attention from an adoring public, do they continue to behave in their famous, endearing, imperious “cat-like” ways? Simona Cannas and her colleagues at the […]

Window Pains, Hamburger & Fries, Stone on Stone, 2 New Superpowers

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Window Pains — When you donate your future former self “to science”, your generosity might open a door (and, as you will see, close a window) to adventure. A 2012 paper titled “Finger injuries caused by […]

Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in Medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer

“The dirt ground into the margins of medieval manuscripts is one of their interpretable features, which can help us to understand the desires, fears, and reading habits of the past.” – explains researcher Dr Kathryn M. Rudy who is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Art History, of the University of St Andrews, Scotland. […]

Improbable Research