After 35 years in the USA, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is moving to Europe. This coming September, the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland. [NOTE: We will have a big celebration event in Boston, three weeks after the ceremony happens in Zurich!] Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements […]
Dairy cows, particularly in alpine regions (Switzerland, Austria &etc) are often seen (and heard) wearing bells. See photo: Although it’s traditional to fit such cows with bells, a question can, and indeed has, been asked : ‘Do Bells Affect Behaviour and Heart Rate Variability in Grazing Dairy Cows?’ Answers are provided in a 2015 PLoS […]
“Viagra Induces Fractal Growth in Mushrooms in Switzerland“, by Gabriele Losa [pictured here], appears in the special Cloning & Evolution issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. (The article is also online.) It begins: This study investigates the effect of Sildenafil (a synthetic drug that is known to much of the public as “Viagra“) on the growth […]
Lead author Smelov and colleagues write, in this letter to a medical journal, about a careful investigation that may (and may not) have small or nonexistent implications: “Are human papillomavirus DNA prevalences providing high-flying estimates of infection? An international survey of HPV detection on environmental surfaces,” Vitaly Smelov [pictured here], Carina Eklund, Laila Sara Arroyo […]