This new paper somehow avoids saying the most important thing it could say: Santa Claus, like everyone else, ought to be diligent about getting an annual flu shot. The study is: “What would happen if Santa Claus was sick? His impact on communicable disease transmission,” Yuki Furuse, The Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 211, no. […]
Tag: public health
A medical perpective from Pithy Papers
This passage (circa 1799) from London’s Religious Tract Society gives a bracingly cheery view on medical afflictions. The document is called Pithy Papers on Singular Subjects. It says: One man thinks that the sea separates distant countries from each other, but there are seafaring men who say that the ocean joins them. Now, this latter […]
Bacteria and you (a healthy rant)
Mike the Mad Biologist writes, in his blog: During the last week, I’ve come across a couple sensationalist article about E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus being found on common surfaces. Here’s one article about shopping carts and E. coli… And here’s an article about Staphylococcus aureus (those S. aureus resistant to methicillin–and often other antibiotics–are […]
Lee Loveless: Vampire video for tooth care
The perhaps misleadingly-named Lee Loveless [pictured here] works for the UK’s National Health Service [NHS) in the city of Portsmouth. Loveless appears, in words only, in a BBC news report: Vampire video aims to help improve Portsmouth’s teeth A viral vampire video is at the centre of a new dental health campaign in Portsmouth. Inspired […]
Bra to star in press conference Tuesday
Dr. Elena Bodnar will hold a press conference next week — on Tuesday, Sept 28, at 11:00 am — at the MIT Museum to announce that her Ig Nobel Prize-winning Emergency Bra is now available to the public, and to present a new invention (a counterpart device to be worn by men). UPDATE: The press […]
Scotsman: the volcano and the bra
The Scotsman comments on a dealing with the effects of the Icelandic volcano eruption: It’s better than cupping a hand over your face IT MAY well be time to resort to extreme protective measures amid fears over the ash cloud polluting our atmosphere. Perhaps we should join the Edinburgh International Science Festival in celebrating one […]
Bodnar bringing bra to Britain
Dr. Elena Bodnar writes, in The Guardian, about the soon-to-begin 2010 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK: For the Ig Nobel award ceremony, I designed a hot pink Emergency Bra that has now been dubbed the Harvard model. I demonstrated it on Nobel laureates Wolfgang Ketterle (Nobel prize for physics, 2001), Orhan Pamuk (literature, 2006) […]
Improbable Research Collection #128: The 2009 Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health
At the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, Public Health Prize winner Dr. Elena Bodnar demonstrates her invention – a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander. She is assisted by Nobel laureates […]
Kissing and the Common Cold?
Valentine’s Day always brings the question “Can you catch a cold by kissing?” A 1984 experiment gave this answer: “Casual social encounters or kisses between infected and susceptible individuals are probably unlikely to result in the transmission of rhinoviruses.” Here’s kissing data from the experiment. The citation and further quotations appear below it.
Discouraged from eating saliva noodles
“Chinese locals discouraged from eating saliva noodles” says the CRI.cn headline (thanks to Barfblog for spotting it). The report, about the town of Changxing, says: “The Chinese Business View reported on Thursday that the township government has launched a 500 yuan award for the first six families that do not treat their guests to ‘xian […]