The Ig Nobel Prizes have again turned up in a crossword puzzle, this time as an answer in the August 2, 2022 puzzle in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The clue for one of the down words is: 23 ___ Satiric Science Prize for “research that makes people laugh then think” By our […]
The Ig Nobel Prizes have again turned up in a crossword puzzle, this time as an answer in the May 3, 2022 puzzle in The New York Times. The clue for one of the across words is: 14 ___ Prize (satirical scientific award since 1991) By our lazy count, this is the sixth time the Ig […]
The Ig Nobel Prizes have again turned up in a crossword puzzle, this time as a clue in the September 4, 2021 puzzle in The Los Angeles Times. The clue for one of the across words is: 22 The Ig Nobel Prize, e.g. By our lazy count, this is the fifth time the Ig Nobel Prizes […]
The Inexplicable Shrimpgoby (Cryptocentrus inexplicatus) was named as such by the American ichthyologist (fish studier) and lichenologist (lichen studier) Albert William Christian Theodore Herre c. 1934. It’s one of more than 33,000 fish species listed by the online resource Fishbase – A Global Information System on Fishes (a branch of the Philippines-based Q-quatics group). It’s not immediately obvious […]
The Ig Nobel Prizes have again wandered into a crossword puzzle, this time as a clue in the April 5, 2021 puzzle in The New Yorker. The clue for one of the across words is: 17 Item whose slipperiness was the subject of a 2014 Ig Nobel Prize-winning study By our lazy count, this is […]
The Ig Nobel Prizes have again wandered into a crossword puzzle, this time as a clue in the January 23, 2021 puzzle in the Wall Street Journal. The clue for one of the across words is: 123 Satiric prize for scientific research By our lazy count, this is the third time the Ig Nobel Prizes […]
Why do wine bottles (usually) have a raised-up internal dome-like structure [its technical name is a ‘punt’] at the bottom of the bottle? If you have a theory about such things, yours can be compared to a substantial list of possible explanations – bearing in mind that experts in the field are as yet undecided […]
It’s not everyday that a newly discovered 3-D mathematical concept appears on the topological horizon. But one did in 2012. It’s called the Bamboozle Structure. “Bamboozle consists of 51 equilateral triangles, meeting pairwise at an angle of about 70.5 degrees (arccos 1/3).” It seems that topologists haven’t given a great deal of consideration to Bamboozle […]
It almost goes without saying that Improbable endeavours to keep our readers up-to-date with current fMRI research projects. In respect of which, may we recommend : ‘This is your brain on Scrabble: Neural correlates of visual word recognition in competitive Scrabble players as measured during task and resting-state’ published in the journal Cortex, Volume 75, […]
“Despite the vast amount written on the chin, it is deserving of continued attention, for perhaps understanding the chin will reveal some unexpected insight into what it means to be human.” – explain Dr James D. Pampush (Duke University, US) and Dr David J. Daegling ( University of Florida, US). They add to the literature […]