People ask us why this year’s (2021) Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will, like last year’s, happen entirely online rather than in the usual big-theater-with-an-audience. Why? Because if you’re organizing a public event, especially an event involving people traveling from many countries, you are aware that this (see news item by Axios, July 8, 2021) kind of […]
Tag: Olympics
Olympic Gold Medalists Die Earlier (than Silver Medalists) [new study]
When it comes to Gold and Silver medalists in Olympic Track and Field events between 1896 and 1948, then : “Contrary to conventional wisdom, winners die over one year earlier than losers.” That’s the result of a new research project conducted by Professor Adam Leive of the Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy, University […]
A 1912 Olympic shooting mystery math/physics quiz
This week’s math/physics essay quiz is to explain the math and physics underlying these “INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE OFFICIALS AND COMPETITORS AT THE SHOOTING COMPETITIONS” from THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF STOCKHOLM 1912, ISSUED BY THE SWEDISH OLYMPIC COMMITTEE. Here is the relevant passage: In addition to the rules and regulations already issued, […]
Vibrostimulating the Latvian bobsleighers can produce victory (study)
With the Winter Olympics about to begin, what better time to ask, ‘Do Latvian bobsleighers have a unique advantage? Specifically, the RE21 from the Latvian Academy of Sport Education? [photo at right] Details were revealed in a 2011 paper for the LASE JOURNAL OF SPORT SCIENCE 2011/2/1 | 3 by Uģis Ciematnieks, Nauris Ķeizans, Sandis […]
Curling brush research (studies of Olympian sports technology)
With the curling competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics about to get underway, what better time to look at the work of Brett A. Marmo, Mark-Paul Buckingham, and Jane R. Blackford of the School of Engineering & Electronics and the Centre for Materials Science & Engineering, at The University of Edinburgh, UK, who have performed […]
Breakthrough: “It is in fact a gesture of triumph”
Today’s Heavily Promoted Science-Related Study of the Day (HFSRSD) is described in this press release from its publisher: Evidence for a nonverbal expression of triumph Winning Olympic athletes display of triumph is a globally recognised gesture Many would assume that the positive feelings felt by an athlete after a win would be that of pride, however, […]
Reflections from Darwin’s beard
Ed Theriot, co-author of the classic article “The Taxonomy of Barney“, writes after seeing a web site about Darwin’s beard: Musing on stuff that is not necessarily clearly connected to anything else: My dad and I were duck hunting one morning in South Louisiana. A cold front had just passed. The sun was not yet […]