Smelly people in the office [podcast #78]

Smelly people in the smelly workplace — that’s the dilemma and joy of this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams  — with dramatic readings by FYFD fluid dynamicist Nicole Sharp — tells about: Hugging and what it means, maybe — “Smell Organization: Bodies and Corporeal Porosity in Office Work,” Kathleen Riach […]

Structure of Pigments of the Red Sweat of the Hippopotamus

Your notion of the structure of hipposudoric and norhipposudoric acids, pigments of the red sweat of the hippopotamus, may need some updating. This newly published study calls for your attention: “Refined Structure of Hipposudoric and Norhipposudoric Acids, Pigments of the Red Sweat of the Hippopotamus,” Takatoshi Matsumoto, Yoko Saikawa, Masaya Nakata, and Kimiko Hashimoto, Chemistry […]

Chemistry perfume PR innovation: In the future, “better” means “more”

Under a new interpretation — call it, perhaps, “The Belfast Interpretation” — more means better. To see how this works, read a publicity release issued by Queen’s University Belfast with the headline “Queen’s scientists develop first perfume which smells better the more you sweat“: Researchers in the Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre have developed a […]

Goats in and as sweaters

Goats in sweaters (via @EmilyAnthes): Photo Essay: Goats in Sweaters By Reyhan Harmanci, Modern Farmer, November 26, 2013 For the past 17 years, Brooklyn-based artist Alexander Gorlizki has been traveling to Jaipur, India, to work. And while there over the last few years, he began photographing something very exciting: goats wearing sweaters…. Goats as sweaters; “An explanation […]

Finger Ratios Don’t Always Predict Body Odor

Discoveries continue to pour in about the significance of people’s finger lengths. Recently we wrote about studies concerning finger ratios and number of sex partners, finger ratios and the prediction of who will become a good doctor, finger ratios and the success of financial traders, and many other wonderous things. A new Swiss/French/British study reveals […]