Questions of masks and spittle, and separately—and startlingly—the question of whether masks are necessary in ordinary, non-pandemic times in hospital operating rooms. Four medical studies covering those topics get a good looking at in the “Wear a Mask?” column in the special Small Animals issue (vol. 26, no 3) of the Annals of Improbable Research.
Tag: medical
Podcast Episode #205: “Color Preferences in the Insane”
Color Preference in the Insane, Can Consumers Recognize the Taste of their Favorite Beer?, Effect of Audience Boredom on the Power Hungry, You Never Sleep Alone, Improbable Medical Review, Extracting the Wrong Tooth, and Telephones for Animals. In episode #206, Marc Abrahams shows some unfamiliar research studies to Jean Berko Gleason, Chris Cotsapas, Maggie Lettvin, […]
Ig Nobel talk (and webcast) at NIH on Wednesday
Marc Abrahams will give this week’s NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture talk, at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The topic will be “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes.” The event, at 3 pm (US eastern time), Wednesday, February 19, is open to the public, free. It will also be webcast. The […]
fucK Gene Polymerase Chain Reaction on Sputum
This provocatively-titled study adds a new way in which one can analyze sputum for medical purposes: “Quantitative fucK Gene Polymerase Chain Reaction on Sputum and Nasopharyngeal Secretions to Detect Haemophilus influenzae Pneumonia,” Guma M.K. Abdeldaim, Kristoffer Strålin, Per Olcéne, Paula Möllinge, and Bjorn Herrmann, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, vol. 76, no. 2, June 2013, […]
Clicker Training for Surgeons and Other Animals, and other surprises about surgeons
A medical report about using clickers to train surgeons (rather than other kinds of animals) is one of several studies featured in the article “Surprises About Surgeons,” which is one of the articles in the special Medical Surprises issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, which is one of the 143 issues published so far! Subscribe to the magazine, […]
The Man Who Was and Was Not Freddie Mercury—and other surprises about patients
A psychiatric report about “a patient who was a double for and imitator of the late Freddy Mercury, lead singer for the rock group Queen” is one of several studies featured in the article “Surprises About Patients,” which is one of the articles in the special Medical Surprises issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, which is one of […]
Evaluating Students’ Evaluations of Medical Professors: Are There Cookies?
Some medical schools may be selecting or rejecting faculty members because those individuals do or do not offer cookies to their students. That is a possible conclusion one might draw, after reading this new study done by faculty members: “Availability of cookies during an academic course session affects evaluation of teaching,” Michael Hessler, Daniel M […]
Toy-Car-Ride Versus Drugging [Medical Experiment on Children]
What’s the least-worst way to prevent young kids from becoming jittery as they are about to have surgery? This new experiment plays with that question: “The Effectiveness of Transport in a Toy Car for Reducing Preoperative Anxiety in Preschool Children: A Randomised Controlled Prospective Trial,” P.P. Liu, Y. Sun, C. Wu, W.H. Xu, R.D. Zhang, […]
‘Stethoscope’ – and other medical poems
If you’re looking for poetic material with medical themes, the pages of the journal Medical Humanities are a good place to begin. The publication regularly features medically inspired poems – turn for example to Volume 37, Issue 1, which features : ● ‘Stethoscope’ (by Anne K Merritt) Here’s an extract : “She has wandered with […]
Ultrasound Probe Grip: The Afternoon Tea Technique
British tea traditions continue to affect the way medicine is taught and practiced. A new study pours out details. “Ultrasound Probe Grip: The Afternoon Tea Technique,” Luke McMenamin, Stephen Wolstenhulme, Max Hunt, Stuart Nuttall, and Asoka Weerasinghe, Journal of the Intensive Care Society, vol. 18, no. 3, 2017, pp. 258-260. The authors, at medical institutions […]