This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Best interests at heart? — Feedback is fascinated by the final eight words in this statement: “Disadvantages include the competitive element associated with racing, which creates a strong incentive to kill birds where this is not in […]
“Total body water was determined by deuterium oxide dilution in 17 normal male subjects with a range of 55.9% to 70.2% and an average value of 61.8% of body weight. Eleven normal females ranged from 45.6% to 59.9% with an average of 51.9%, or 9.9% less than the males. These total body water figures have […]
By locking fat people’s upper and lower jaws together with a tooth-to-tooth metal lock, a team from the Unviersity of Otago and from Leeds (UK), intend to slim those fat people down. So suggests a June 28, 2021 press release from the University of Otago. The press release begins: “University of Otago and UK researchers […]
How does body weight and size affect the perceived persuasiveness of ‘leaders’ (when the ‘leader’ is a man) ? This question has recently been examined by three professors from the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, US. Professor Kevin Kniffin and Professor Vicki Bogan, along with faculty colleague Professor David Just (also now at […]
News reports suggest that coffee can help a person lose weight—something we anticipated in “The Coffee Diet Song,” in 2004. The song was the thrilling conclusion to “The Atkins Diet Opera.” The opera premiered as part of the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, at Harvard University. Here’s video of that 2004 song, and video of […]
Professor Jean-Frédéric Brun of the Service Central de Physiologie Clinique, Centre d’Exploration et de Réadaptation des Anomalies du Métabolisme Musculaire (CERAMM), Montpellier, France, has spent almost half of his life writing research or tutorial papers which deal with exercise, fuel metabolism assessment in vivo, and hemorheology. He has recently investigated a paradox which has, surprisingly, […]
Have you ever mused upon the question: ‘Is the cross section of a banana an ellipsoid, and if so, can it be used to gauge its volume and surface area? Yes? Then a report in the International Journal of Agricultural Science, Research and Technology (IJASRT) 2011 Vol. 1 No. 1 pp. 1-5, may be of […]
Attn. museum curators! If you were to ask your visitors to lift heavy weights whilst looking at exhibits, would their esthetic pleasure and appreciative comprehension increase? A recent study, published in frontiers in Psychology suggests that ‘Weight lifting can facilitate appreciative comprehension for museum exhibits’. A research team from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, asked 42 […]
Considering the relatively high level of media interest in the so-called ‘Thigh Gap’ phenomenon over the last few years, it’s perhaps surprising that very few scientific researchers appear to have looked into it. Improbable has managed to find only one experimental study, undertaken by Khyati Maheshkumar Ganatra of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at […]
Investigator Kirk Maxey introduced us to this research by saying: “For those with fetishes, we can add multi-colors….” He gives details, including the image reproduced here, on his blog, which begins thus: Lose Weight…and your poop will glow in the dark too! Sean Davies had a problem to solve: If you genetically modify enteric bacteria to make them more […]