A hazard of snacking on beached whales

Further fodder for nutritionists who warn against indiscriminate snacking: “Outbreak of Botulism Type E Associated with Eating a Beached Whale — Western Alaska, July 2002,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 52, No. 2, January 17, 2003. Additional detail appeared in a later report: “Botulism type E outbreak associated with eating a beached whale, Alaska,” Joseph B. […]

On the non-omnipotence of Elephant Snot: Cactus graffiti

Elephant Snot is not the solution to every problem. The Arizona Daily Star confirms that, in this article: Elephant Snot isn’t the answer. Saguaro National Park officials tested a viscous product — with the odd brand name of Elephant Snot — to remove graffiti from saguaros at the park. It didn’t work. “Elephant Snot is out,” […]

A brief history of naked Russians swimming for science

Russian science has a tradition of observing naked swimmers. Several years ago we documented Yuri Glebovich Aleyev’s project (which he documented in a book called Nekton). He used an electric winch to tow naked women under water at speeds of two to four metres per second, to better understand how dolphins interact with water. (His logic may […]

Copters and whales… now planes and crabs

Dave Brooks at Granite Geek alerts us to low-flying research that echoes, distantly, the Ig Nobel Prize-winning innovation of using a remote-control helicopter to gather whale snot.  The University of New Hampshire news service reports: To survey pits dug by horseshoe crabs in the sediments of the Great Bay Estuary, researchers attached a small camera […]