A man — Mikhailovich — obsessed, computationally, with laughter

Suslov Igor Mikhailovich, Doctor of Science, who is Head Scientist at the P.L. Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems, has been working steadily towards a goal: creating a computer with a sense of humor. The photo below shows Mikhailovich projecting his thoughts. Here are four of his research papers on the matter: 1. arXiv:0711.3197 [pdf, ps, other] How to realize […]

Smelov’s investigation of HPV on toilet seats in international airports

Lead author Smelov and colleagues write, in this letter to a medical journal, about a careful investigation that may (and may not) have small or nonexistent implications: “Are human papillomavirus DNA prevalences providing high-flying estimates of infection? An international survey of HPV detection on environmental surfaces,” Vitaly Smelov [pictured here], Carina Eklund, Laila Sara Arroyo […]

Herring farts, Russian submarines & the PM on Swedish TV

Tonight the “Vetenskapens Värld” program on Sweden’s Swedish SVT2 network broadcast a pair of reports, back-to-back, about the Ig Nobel Prizes. Report # 1 is about the recent Ig Nobel Tour‘s visit to Stockholm. Report #2 focuses the history behind one part of that visit — the now-it-can-be-told story of how, some years ago, herring farts prevented the […]

Fish farts, Russian submarines, the Swedish Foreign Minister

Maggie Koerth-Baker of Boing-Boing interviewed several journalists at the AAAS Annual Meeting last week in Vancouver, about what they had learned at the meeting. Here’s me, blabbing on about a new little chapter in the story of how fish farts almost caused a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Sweden, and might cause a new little kerfuffle […]

Improbable Research