Ice Cream Stick Production Tradeoff

Tradeoffs vex the production of even the most pleasure-producing products, such as ice-cream-on-a-stick treats. This study studies some of those tradeoffs: “Energy and Economic Analysis of Ice Cream Stick Production with Brine Tank Machine,” Riswanti Sigalingging and Lukman Adlin Harahap, Researchers World, vol. 2, no. 3, 2011. The authors, at the University of North Sumatra, […]

Testing the “Stick-on-the-wall Spaghetti rule”

Testing the “Stick-on-the-wall Spaghetti rule” by Simone Montangero and Francesca Vittone Institute for Complex Quantum Systems, Ulm University Ulm, Germany There is always a moment when Italians abroad come across a local who explains to them a simple way of knowing how to cook Spaghetti “al dente”: throw them to the wall, if they stick they are […]

Do orangutans prefer functional tools or non-functional tools?

Orangutans (Pongo spp.) have been observed to spontaneously use tools of various kinds to achieve their objectives. But researchers from The Great Ape Trust, Des Moines, IA, and Iowa State University wondered whether, given the choice, they might prefer to go for a functional tool (stiff) or a non-functional (floppy) tool. Their experimental study presented […]

Interview with the dinosaur scientist who stuck a stick on a chicken’s butt

The Clinic published an interview [in Spanish] with Bruno Rossi, who (together with colleagues) was awarded the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize for biology, for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked. […]