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, […]

Electrical power from coffee and coffee grounds, more or less

Two coffee/caffeine/electricity-generation studies to consider: “Direct power generation from waste coffee grounds in a biomass fuel cell,” Hansaem Jang, Joey D. Ocon, Seunghwa Lee, Jae Kwang Lee, and Jaeyoung Lee, Journal of Power Sources, 296 (2015): 433-439. “Caffeine Improves the Performance and Thermal Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells,” Rui Wang, Jingjing Xue, Lei Meng, Yonghai […]

‘Power Posing’ and the hormone profiles of leaders [research studies]

Back in 2010, a seminal ‘Power Posing’ study from Columbia University and Harvard University in the US revealed : “That a person can, by assuming two simple 1-min poses, embody power and instantly become more powerful has real-world, actionable implications.” The research team found that ‘Power Posing’ not only had effects on observers of the […]

The Choo Lab’s Humming Generator

Many research groups across the world are in the process of developing so-called ‘Energy Harvesting’ (EH) techniques to extract electrical energy from human actions. (see for example, Implementing a knee-energy harvester). The Choo Lab at Caltech specializes in such things, and researchers there have recently developed a system which is designed to power portable electronic […]

The Artificial Tree Electric Generator (patent)

HRL Laboratories – formerly the (Howard) Hughes Research Laboratories – have just been granted a US patent for their ‘Power generation through artificial transpiration ‘ invention. The power system – which could perhaps be described as an ‘artificial tree’ – generates power by drawing water through a turbine, driven by pressure differences caused by transpiration […]

Psychology discovery: The power of exposure to an American Flag

A photo of an American flag has power over the minds of men and women, implies this study: “A Single Exposure to the American Flag Shifts Support Toward Republicanism up to 8 Months Later,” Travis J. Carter [pictured here], Melissa J. Ferguson and Ran R. Hassin, Psychological Science, 2011 22: 1011. The authors at the University of […]