mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2024, issue number 2024-12. ISSN 1076-500X.
improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: IG NOBEL COPIOUSNESS
03 Diet of Worms?
04 Video of Face-to-Face Session 2 and 3 (of 3)
05 LIMERICK CHALLENGE Diet of Worms?
06 Weasel Word Watch Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dung Beetles, Packaging, Gassy Children
08 Diet of Worms?
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
32 — Contact Info (*)
33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR) is overflow detritus
from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: IG NOBEL COPIOUSNESS
The special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 30, no. 6) of the magazine contains copious details about the new Ig Nobel Prize winners and the ceremony at which they were awarded their prizes.
The table of contents and selected articles (and a fine selection of typographical erros) are at:
https://improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-november-december-2024-vol-30-number-6/
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!): gumroad.com/improbable
Tables of Contents: improbable.com/magazine-2/
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03 Diet of Worms?
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"The Diet of Worms: A Study of Polychaete Feeding Guilds," Kristian Fauchald and Peter Jumars, Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review, vol. 17, 1979, pp. 193-284.
repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/3422/OMBARFauchald1979.pdf
The authors explain, in words that might intrigue some persons who are new to the study of polychaetes:
"We formally define feeding guilds for all polychaetes based on a joint consideration of food, feeding habits and locomotory patterns. We also draw some synecological conclusions about these patterns. We were particularly interested in understanding the sympatric occurrence in the deep sea of several congeners with extremely limited morphological differentiation. This problem started us thinking along these lines; we believe we have at least a partial solution to our problem."
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04 Video of Face-to-Face Session 2 and 3 (of 3)
Video of the first of all three Ig Nobel Face-to-Face sessions are now online at
improbable.com/ig/archive/2024-ceremony/#ig-nobel-face-to-face-2024-saturday-september-14-2024-in-the-mit-museum
At this year's Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event, two days after the ceremony, the new winners asked each other questions about their work. That happened at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in three short sessions.
Soon we will post video of the Face-to-Face event that happened a few weeks later at the Miraikan science museum in Tokyo.
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05 LIMERICK CHALLENGE Diet of Worms?
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Can Foraging for Earthworms Significantly Reduce Global Famine in a Catastrophe?." Henry Miller, James Mulhall, Lou Aino Pfau, Rachel Palm, and David C. Denkenberger, Biomass, vol. 4, no. 3, 2024, pp. 765-783. doi.org/10.3390/biomass4030043
The authors explain:
"Previously reported earthworm extraction methods (digging and sorting, vermifuge application, worm grunting, and electroshocking) were analysed, along with scalability, climate-related barriers to foraging, and pre-consumption processing requirements. Estimations of the global wild earthworm resource suggest it could provide three years of the protein needs of the current world human population.... While short-term targeted foraging could still be beneficial in select areas given its quick ramp-up, earthworms may bioaccumulate heavy metals, radioactive material, and other contaminants, presenting a significant health risk. Overall, earthworm foraging cannot be recommended as a scalable resilient food solution unless further research addresses uncertainties regarding cost-effectiveness and food safety."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
DIET OF WORMS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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06 Weasel Word Watch Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"Revealing the Ritually Concealed: Custodians, Conservators, and the Concealed Shoe," Ceri Houlbrook and Rebecca Shawcross, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, vol. 14, no. 2, 2018. <doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2018.1443892>
Winning limerickicist TRICIA MEGALOPOULOS writes:
What can I say about these...
these words that I utter with ease?
These words (such as "healthy"!)
are making me wealthy.
Some rubes are soooooooo easy to please.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
The words wander easily, breezily,
But do what they're doing too sleazily.
They flow and fly by
But don't say, they imply.
I can see what I'm seeing is weaselly.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dung Beetles, Packaging, Gassy Children
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com):
• Guided by the Stars: The Fascinating World of Dung Beetles and Navigation with Marie Dacke
• Symmetric Overpackaging Attitudes of Gift Givers and Recipients
• The new Ig Nobel Prizes book for children
• Children in the Gas-like Phase
• …and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS):
improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/
PODCAST ARCHIVE:
improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/
COLUMNS IN NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE:
newscientist.com/author/marc-abrahams/
COLUMNS IN THE GUARDIAN:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/series/improbableresearch
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/improbable_research/
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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08 Diet of Worms?
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"The Diet of Worms: An Analysis of Mole Dental Microwear," Mary T. Silcox and Mark F. Teaford. Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 83, no. 3, 2002, pp. 804-814.
doi.org/10.1644/1545-1542(2002)083%3C0804:TDOWAA%3E2.0.CO;2
The authors explain:
"We compared microwear from shearing facets of lower molars from Parascalops breweri (the hairy-tailed mole) and Scapanus orarius (the coast mole) with that from other small mammal species including a tenrec, a hedgehog, 3 primates, and 2 bats. The 2 mole species exhibit a distinct microwear pattern that is characterized by many short, narrow scratches, and relatively few pits. Although the molars of the streaked tenrec (Hemicentetes nigriceps) differ profoundly in morphology from those of moles, they show a very similar pattern of microwear on their shearing facets. This common pattern (missing in the rest of the comparison sample) is likely a product of the importance of earthworms in the diets of both H. nigriceps and the moles and is plausibly explained by the interaction between teeth and soil from the inside and outside of earthworms."
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
improbable.com/magazine-2/
NOTE: Beginning with the next issue,
the magazine price will increase,
the first change in almost a decade.
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
· Arisia, Boston, MA, USA — Jan 17, 2025
· AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, USA — Feb 14, 2025
· Ig Nobel EuroTour — EPFL, Lausanne, Mar 31, 2025
· Ig Nobel EuroTour — Royal Society, London, Apr 4, 2025
· Ig Nobel EuroTour — other events TBA
· Balticon, Baltimore, USA — May 23-26, 2025
· Cosmos Club, Washington DC, USA — May 28, 2025
· 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 2025
For details and additional events, see: improbable.com/upcoming-events/
If your institution would like to host an event,
please get in touch with us at:
MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,
in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.
improbable.com/publications/magazine
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($5 each)
NOTE: Beginning with the next issue,
the magazine price will increase,
the first change in almost a decade.
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)
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31 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR, see the links at the end of this email.
ARCHIVES: improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
improbable.com
EDITORIAL: MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: subscriptions AT improbable.com
Cambridge, MA, USA
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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2024, Improbable Research
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