David Hu, head of the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize-winning urination-duration-research team, has a new animated video explaining that research: The 2015 Ig Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Patricia Yang, David Hu, Jonathan Pham, and Jerome Choo, for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus […]
Tag: urination
New, tail-swinging research from the urination-duration lab
Ig Nobel Prize winner David Hu and colleagues published a new study investigating why elephants and other tail-swinging mammals swing their tails. Specifically, they looked at how (and how well) tail-swinging repels insects. The new study is: “Mammals Repel Mosquitoes With Their Tails,” Marguerite E. Matherne, Kasey Cockerill, Yiyang Zhou, Mihir Bellamkonda, David L. Hu, Journal […]
Do small dogs urinate dishonestly? [research study]
The height of dogged dishonesty or honesty, when dogs urinate, gets analyzed in this new study: “Urine Marking in Male Domestic Dogs: Honest or Dishonest?” B. McGuire [pictured here], B. Olsen, K.E. Bemis, and D. Orantes, Journal of Zoology, epub 2018. The authors, at Cornell University, explain: Via two studies, we tested the hypothesis that […]
Kelsey Dobson and Stephen Lindeman review a urination duration lecture
Kelsey Dobson and Stephen Lindeman attended a lecture by David Hu, who was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize this year for his research on urination duration in mammals. Dobson and Lindeman each then reviewed what they had seen and hears:
Can you train a cow when/where to wee?
The research team that once looked into the question “Does water or blowing air stimulate Canadian cows to defecate?” has now tried to teach calves when and where to wee, to see if it could be done. Here’s their new study: “Operant conditioning of urination by calves,” Alison Vaughan, Anne Marie de Passillé, Joseph Stookey, and […]
Does it matter for men (and pharma companies) whether they sit or stand?
A new Dutch study on an old question — should men stand or sit when urinating? — just might weaken the revenue stream of pharma companies that offer treatments for male urinary ailments. The researchers suggest (that is their word) that altering a man’s stance when urinating can sometimes be effective at treating some prostate-related (and similar) problems. Sometimes as effective, even, as treating the […]
Urination, free will, and the John Templeton Foundation
What kind of research is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, you might ask. This kind: “Embodied free will beliefs: Some effects of physical states on metaphysical opinions,” Michael R. Ent, Roy F. Baumeister, Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 27, July 2014, pp. 147–154. The authors write: The present research suggests that… The more intensely people felt… the urge to urinate, the […]
Dog excretion accretion as indicator of Earth’s magnetic field
This study gathered and assessed evidence of the possible effects of the Earth’s magnetic field on the tangible output of dogs: “Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field,” Vlastimil Hart [pictured here], Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Milo¿ Je¿ek, Tomá¿ Ku¿ta, Veronika N¿mcová, Jana Adámková, Kate¿ina Benediktová, […]
A poetical, time-centric film about fluid dynamics
Flora Lichtman produced another poetical video for Science Friday, this one about the mammal micturation duration research study that is garnering so much attention, and that will be discussed as part of a landmark session at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, November 24, 2013: BONUS: Listen to Science Friday‘s radio […]
Birth-Fluid Dynamics, and the Splashy Hydrodynamics of Urination
Aatish Bhatia (of Empirical Zeal) alerts us to an outpouring of soon-to-be-announced birth-centric and micturation-modulation fluid dynamics insights. Anne Staples [pictured here], of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will chair a session on “Pumping Phenomenon“, at the American Physical Society’s 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics,in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, […]