Sex in Space (Victorianly), and Listed Cranks, and High-Tech Coffee-Sniffing

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here are bits of each of them: The Kármán sutra — … The paper is almost Victorian in its voluminous discussion of possible regulatory mechanisms, but nearly complete avoidance of mentioning fornication. The highest moment of titillation comes in the following passage: “The […]

Ig Nobel-winning scratch ‘n sniff, and nuclear power plant safety

In Ig Nobel Prize-winning invention is now being used, insistently, to help protect nuclear power plants. The 1993 Ig Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to James Campbell and Gaines Campbell of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, dedicated deliverers of fragrance, for inventing scent strips [also known as “scratch ‘n sniff” strips], the odious method by which perfume […]

Nosy inquiry to members of a non-criminal student sample

This is possibly not the only study that focuses on a non-criminal student sample. It is one of the few that relies on both the Iowa Gambling Task and Sniffin’ Sticks: “The Relationship Between Psychopathy and Olfactory Tasks Sensitive to Orbitofrontal Cortex Function in a Non-criminal Student Sample,” Travis M. Bettison, Mehmet K. Mahmut, Richard J. Stevenson, Chemosensory Perception, […]