The ubiquitous ‘Stray Sock Syndrome’ can be a considerable headache for human sock-owners and sock-sorters. But help is afoot courtesy of the Computer Science Division at the University of California at Berkeley, US, and the Max Planck Institut Informatik, Germany. Where a team of computer scientists and robotics experts have “…considered the problem of equipping […]
Tag: socks
Physics: Of snow and socks in the Balkans
Investigator Lira Nikolovska writes: “I noticed last year’s Ig Nobel physics prize winner:” PHYSICS PRIZE: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. REFERENCE: “Preventing […]
Electricity and the colour of socks
What is the relationship between the colour of socks and their ability to generate static electricity? Those interested will find no better place to start their enquiries than the article: New Experiments and Obſervations Concerning Electricity, written by Robert Symmer, Eſq; F.R.S., back in 1759. Symmer was an independent amateur Scottish investigator – or what […]
Study: Smelly socks for malaria control
Cesar Sanchez of the TwistedBacteria blog alerts us to this new study, which was derived from the Ig Nobel Prize-winning work of Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong (who showed that many malaria mosquitoes are attracted equally to the smell of human feet and the smell of limburger cheese): “Sugar-fermenting yeast as an organic source […]