Ig Nobel Prize winner Mahadevan (2007 Ig Nobel physics prize, for studying how sheets become wrinkled) and colleagues have taken an applied-mathematical look at yet another unanswered question. As happens so often with Mahadevan and his merry, varying band of collaborators, a better-than-anyone-had-before answer appeared. Details are in this study: “The dynamics of sperm cooperation in a competitive […]
Tag: seven
George (“magical number seven”) Miller died this week
George Miller, who wrote the almost-magical essay “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two“, died this past week. The essay appeared in the Psychological Review (vol. 101, no. 2, 1956, pp. 343-352). It begins: My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer. For seven years this number has followed me around, has intruded […]
Septipus?
Whither a seven-armed octopus? Wonder whether it’s a case of wither? So does the author of this study: “An Octopus With Only Seven Arms: Anatomical Details,” Ian G. Gleadall, Journal of Molluscan Studies, Volume 55, Issue 4. 1989, pp. 479-487. The author, at School of Medicine Tohoku University Seiryo cho Sendai, Japan, reports: “A male […]