“To smell again, perchance to learn better” would be a poetical way to speak of this study about teaching sleeping children in Germany how to read and write better English: “How Odor Cues Help to Optimize Learning During Sleep in a Real Life-Setting,” Franziska Neumann, Vitus Oberhauser, and Jürgen Kornmeier, Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. […]
Tag: germany
FRIDAY night: Ig Nobel at the Tempodrom in BERLIN
Friday night, the Ig Nobel EuroTour arrives in Berlin. April 12, Friday, 8:00 pm—Ig Nobel Night in Berlin—Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany—Marc Abrahams, with special guest celebrity forensic entomologist Mark Benecke (analysis of some forensic-science-related Ig Nobel Prize winners). TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS are now on sale. [Some background, about the Ig Nobel Prizes.] [PREVIEW in Die Zeit], PREVIEW in Der Tagesspiegel] Tour Subsequent Event […]
In-depth examination of the Ig Nobel Prizes, for German doctors
Ärtze Zeitung, the German newspaper for doctors, has a loving, long appreciation of the Ig Nobel Prizes. It begins [here translated into English]: Winking and improving the world The research results, for which the Ig Nobel Prize is awarded annually, often tease the laughing muscles – and then make you think. Many results are now available in […]
Analysis of gunpowder in Frankfurt
Last week, in the midst of the Ig Nobel EuroTour, we encounter this item—item #1— on a menu in a restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany: Our colleague Merry (“Corky”) White, a food anthropologist based at Boston University, tracked down an explanation of the most colorful named ingredient—gunpowder. The explanation, written by Priyadarshini Nanda, appeared in the […]
The PIZZA & POPCORN issue of the Annals of Improbable Research
The special Pizza & Popcorn Questions issue (vol. 24, no. 1) of the Annals of Improbable Research is now available. The issue’s table of contents is online. And you can obtain, for a pittance, the full issue. The magazine is in splendid PDF form, packed with info yet lighter by far than a feather or a popcorn kernel. “The Evolution of Popcorn” […]
Monday afternoon in Heidelberg
Join us Monday afternoon at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, for a talk about improbable research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. It begins at 3:00 pm. Hecklers are, as always, welcome. Here are details.
Infrastructure and appearances: “made almost entirely of wood”
“[The] Germans themselves made extensive use of decoys to protect airfields and other targets. One example in the Netherlands was constructed with particular care, made almost entirely of wood and including hangars, gun positions, aircraft and vehicles. However, it took so long to build that Allied photo interpreters had plenty of time to observe it. […]
Instant beer: The birth of a notion
Along with jetpacks and hose-down-able houses, food in pill form has been perennially one of those futuristic advances that is just around the corner. 65 years before Willy Wonka’s three-course-meal chewing gum, German scientists brought us desiccated beer — according to the Indian Medical Gazette, summarized here in the New York Medical Journal [July 22, […]
Smelov’s investigation of HPV on toilet seats in international airports
Lead author Smelov and colleagues write, in this letter to a medical journal, about a careful investigation that may (and may not) have small or nonexistent implications: “Are human papillomavirus DNA prevalences providing high-flying estimates of infection? An international survey of HPV detection on environmental surfaces,” Vitaly Smelov [pictured here], Carina Eklund, Laila Sara Arroyo […]
Clear Safety Signs: E Germany wins versus W Germany
Safety signs are one area in which, according to this study, East Germany ultimately triumphed over West Germany: “Should I Stay or Should I Go – Cognitive Conflict in Multi-Attribute Signals Probed with East and West German ‘Ampelmännchen’ Traffic Signs,” Claudia Peschke, Bettina Olk [pictured here], Claus C. Hilgetag, PLoS ONE 8(5), May 24, 2013, […]