Olympic swimmers owe some of their success to research done by a Russian scientist. Here’s a look back at our look back at his work: Yuri Glebovich Aleyev used an electric winch to tow naked women under water at speeds of two to four metres per second. Later, his colleagues, when they peered at Aleyev’s […]
Tag: Fish
Sarcastic fringehead (fish of the day)
The sarcastic fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) is this week’s Fish of the Day. Enthusiasts will (or won’t) enjoy this puzzler from Mark W. Denny and Steven Gaines’s book Chance in biology: using probability to explore nature: Suppose that a displaced sarcastic fringehead must spend approximately three hours searching for a new shelter. Lets’ also assume that […]
Fish farts, Russian submarines, the Swedish Foreign Minister
Maggie Koerth-Baker of Boing-Boing interviewed several journalists at the AAAS Annual Meeting last week in Vancouver, about what they had learned at the meeting. Here’s me, blabbing on about a new little chapter in the story of how fish farts almost caused a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Sweden, and might cause a new little kerfuffle […]
Dr. Fish & Fish & Electro-shocking (& Mr. Fish)
A classic study by Dr. Ray Fish [pictured here] could be of use to biologists and anyone else who plan to take a special course in electroshocking fish. Dr. Fish’s report is: “Electric shock, part III: Deliberately applied electric shocks and the treatment of electric injuries,” Ray Fish, Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 11, Issue 5, […]
Thursday: Whales & herring farts in Copenhagen
A special event in Copenhagen on Thursday, October 13, 7:00-9:00 pm, HCØ (Auditorium 4), Universitetsparken 5, 2100 København Ø: Magnus Wahlberg, Ig Nobel Prize winner, Improbable Research’s Scandinavian Desk Chief, and Head of Research and Outreach, Adjunct Professor at Fjord & Bælt and University of Southern Denmark, will talk about whales and dolphins, which he is currently […]
A brief history of naked Russians swimming for science
Russian science has a tradition of observing naked swimmers. Several years ago we documented Yuri Glebovich Aleyev’s project (which he documented in a book called Nekton). He used an electric winch to tow naked women under water at speeds of two to four metres per second, to better understand how dolphins interact with water. (His logic may […]
Ichthyology’s most salacious study
Is this ichthyology’s most salacious study? “Female mouthbrooders in control of pre- and postmating sexual selection,” Marcel P. Haesler, Charlotte M. Lindeyer, Oliver Otti, Danielle Bonfils, Dik Heg and Michael Taborsky, Behavioral Ecology, epub June 14, 2011. (Thanks to investigator Charles Oppenheim for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at various institutions in Switzerland, […]
On finding worms in your fish (2)
Behold a safety equation for sushi. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) produced this jolly poster called “Application of Interaction Tables – Sushi Roll with Raw Fish. Potentially Hazardous Food: The Evolving Definition of Temperature Control for Safety”
On finding worms in your fish (1)
Speaking of worms in fish, Investigator Stanley Sanpaul writes: I talked to somebody who used to work in the fish department at my local store. He said 1. finding worms in fish is VERY common 2. worms are good in the following sense. Squeeze lemon on the fish (before cooking of course). The worms don’t […]
Joe Bizzarro quiz solution
The answer is (c). The question was: Which of the people in this photo is Joe Bizzarro, author of the study “A Review of the Physical and Biological Characteristics of the Bahía Magdalena Lagoon Complex (Baja California Sur, Mexico)“? a) the beardless man holding the dark fish b) the light-bearded man holding the brown fish […]