Just stumbled across a big box of press clippings from the 90s. Here’s Bill Lipscomb with the plaster cast of his left foot on display. This article in the Harvard Gazette on October 2, 1997, says: IG NOBEL FEET: William N. Lipscomb, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1976, holds his foot up against a display […]
Builders and archaeologists sometimes comes across old shoes (usually just one of a pair*) which have been deliberately hidden in inaccessible places in the fabric of old buildings. Under floorboards, behind bricked-up fireplaces etc etc. But why were they put there? A number of scholars have provided possible answers . . . The most recent […]
“The advancement in computer and drone applications is beyond human imagination, affecting and transforming the society, both structurally and socially. Exploitation of computer and drone technology is crucial to humankind in the futuristic world.” – explains the website for the 2017 International Conference on Computer and Drone Applications (IConDA) which was held at the Damai Beach […]
Documented improbable electrical treatments for pain relief are not restricted to shocks from the Nile Catfish. ‘An interesting Case’ is described by Professor Jock Murray of the Division of Neurology, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada, in which he relates the bespoke treatment that a Canadian farmer had developed for alleviating constant pain in his leg. […]
Theodore Cosco [pictured here], who is a past president of the Cambridge University Clay Pigeon Shooting Club, and James Harmsworth King display their unusual across-the-sea foot fetish, in this study: “Americans shooting themselves in the foot: the epidemiology of podiatric self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the United States,” Theodore D. Cosco and James H. King, Medical Journal of […]
Some say that the circumspect application of Duct Tape works as a viable verruca-removal method. Others say it doesn’t. And yet others say that they can’t really be sure. We present below a (partial) listing of professional viewpoints from the medical literature. Does work (as good as cryotherapy) • • The Efficacy of Duct Tape […]
Vi Hart plays with mathematics and her food—in this case a treat called Fruit by the Foot: BONUS: The book Cubed Foot Gardening
For the first time, Improbable can draw attention to an experimentally verified investigation into ‘Lower Extremity Kinetics in Tap Dance’ (in: Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Volume 14, Number 1, March 2010 , pp. 3-10(8)) Investigators Lester Mayers, M.D., Shaw Bronner, P.T., Ph.D., O.C.S., Sujani Agraharasamakulam, M.S., and Sheyi Ojofeitimi, M.P.T. asked six professional […]
Doctoral student Hai Qiu and professor Shuping Xiong of the Ergonomics and Applied Biomechanics Lab at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea, have recently been investigating ‘The Influence of Foot Sizes on Human Balance’ “This study investigated the relationship between foot size and human balance performance. The balance performances of 30 […]
An old fable — that a young Dutch boy stuck his finger in a hole in a dike, thereby preventing disaster — has a contemporary counterpart. Reportedly this new story is true. The 24 Oranges blog reports: Fireman saves 65 coffee containers by putting foot in ship’s leak Last Friday a diver of the Schoonhoven […]