mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
April 2026, issue number 2026-004. 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 CONTENTMENT
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: STRESSSSSSS
03 Optimized Brain Extraction for Pathological Brains
04 IG NOBEL CEREMONY TIX go on sale May 12
05 The 2026 Ig Nobel EuroTour
06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Fast Robust Automated Brain Extraction
07 El Greco Fallacy Fallacy Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Prey, Ear, Volunteering
09 Effectiveness in Brain Removal Techniques
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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.
This little newsletter 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: STRESSSSSSS
The special STRESS issue (32:2) is out and about, and fretting in fun ways with subscribers. The table of contents and a preview are at payhip.com/b/R2xJD
The special FORCES issue (32:3) is in prep.
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SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES
https://improbable.com/magazine-2/
Tables of Contents: improbable.com/magazine-2/
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03 Optimized Brain Extraction for Pathological Brains
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Optimized Brain Extraction for Pathological Brains (optiBET)." Evan S. Lutkenhoff, Matthew Rosenberg, Jeffrey Chiang, Kunyu Zhang, John D. Pickard, Adrian M. Owen, and Martin M. Monti, PloS ONE, vol. 9, no. 12, 2014, article e115551.
doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115551
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04 IG NOBEL CEREMONY TIX go on sale May 12
TICKETS
Tickets to attend the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony
will become available TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2026
online at www.improbable.com
CEREMONY DETAILS
WHAT: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony
WHERE: Kongresshaus, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND,
WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026, 7:00 pm
The ceremony will also be webcast.
Webcast-watching parties will happen in many places. Please feel free to organize your own!
WHY THE MOVE TO EUROPE
Info: improbable.com/2026/03/10/the-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony-is-moving-to-europe-after-35-years-in-the-usa/
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USA RESIDENTS PLEASE NOTE: Three weeks after the ceremony, on September 24, there will be a big celebration at in Boston, Massachusetts. We hope you will join us there! We will announce details soon.
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05 The 2026 Ig Nobel EuroTour
Coming in April and May, this year's Ig Nobel EuroTour will include events in GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, GREECE, and THE NETHERLANDS.
THE SCHEDULE, more or less:
· April 13, Tuesday, 1:00 pm — Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, GERMANY
· April 17, Friday, 7:00 pm — University of Duisberg-Essen, GERMANY
· April 21, Tuesday — Lund University, SWEDEN.
· April 22, 2026, Wednesday — Young Academy of Sweden, Malmö, SWEDEN.
· April 23, Thursday, 6:00 pm — EPFL, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND.
· April 24, Friday — University of Zurich, SWITZERLAND.
· April 25, Saturday, ORBIZ Josef, Zürich, SWITZERLAND. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help at the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony (in Zurich in September) can meet with ceremony organizers Marc Abrahams and Mirko Bischofberger, to explore the possibilities.
· April 28, Tuesday — Athens, GREECE.
· May [dates TBA] — THE NETHERLANDS.
Details, some concrete, a few incipient, some confusing, are on our events listing page
improbable.com/upcoming-events
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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Fast Robust Automated Brain Extraction
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Fast Robust Automated Brain Extraction," Stephen M. Smith, Human Brain Mapping, vol. 17, no. 3, 2002, pp. 143-155. doi.org/10.1002/hbm.10062
The author explains:
"An automated method for segmenting magnetic resonance head images into brain and non-brain has been developed. It is very robust and accurate and has been tested on thousands of data sets from a wide variety of scanners and taken with a wide variety of MR sequences."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
BRAIN EXTRACTION LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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07 El Greco Fallacy Fallacy Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
" 'The El Greco Fallacy' Fallacy," Matthew P. Simunovic, JAMA Ophthalmology, vol. 132, no. 4, 2014, pp. 491-494. doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2013.5684
Winning limerickicist BOBBY SCHOOLCRAFT writes:
'Astigmatic' reasons apart,
The longness of each body part
—When El Greco's people
Look long as a steeple —
Gives some keen observers a start.
This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
You see things. Your paintings should show
What you looked at. Is that how things go?
Did the way that El Greco
Would paint have to echo
Perception? This paper says no.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Prey, Ear, Volunteering
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG:
improbable.com
• Impersonating Predators and Prey
• The Ear and its Malformations: Strange Beliefs and Misconceptions
• The Vivacity of Volunteering for the Ig Nobel Events
• …and more
NEW MEMBERS of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS):
improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/
• Kit Prendergast
• Mirko Bischofberger
• Marcus Müller
SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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09 Effectiveness in Brain Removal Techniques
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"Exploring Effectiveness in Brain Removal Techniques: A Comparison of Approaches," Ellen M. Robertson,, Sara M. Allison, Caroline M. Mueller, Andrew C. Ferriby, Alex R. Roth, and Ranjan Batra, Anatomical Sciences Education, vol. 17, no. 1, 2024, pp. 147-156.
doi.org/10.1002/ase.2333
"Brain dissection is typically an important part of teaching neuroscience in health professional programs. This results in the need to effectively remove brains, which is often performed in a gross anatomy laboratory in the same curriculum. The aim of this study was to determine the most effective method of brain removal based on the time required for removal, difficulty of removal, and preservation of key brain structures for educational purposes."
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
improbable.com/magazine-2/
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
· IG NOBEL EUROTOUR
· Berlin, Germany — Apr 13, 2026
· U Duesberg-Essen, Germany — Apr 17, 2026
· Lund U, Sweden — Apr 21, 2026
· Malmö, Sweden — Apr 22, 2026
· EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland — Apr 23, 2026
· Zurich, Switzerland — Apr 24 & 25, 2026
· Athens, Greece, — Apr 28, 2026
· Leiden, The Netherlands — Jun 11, 2026
· TICKETS GO ON SALE to attend the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — May 12, 2026
· Dead Duck Day, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 5, 2026
· 36th FIRST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY, Zurich, Switzerland — Sep 3, 2026
· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Zurich, Switzerland — Sept 4, 2026
· BOST-IG, Boston, Massachusetts, USA — Sep 24, 2026
· Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 6-9, 2026
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 ($40 for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($8 each)
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating quasi-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 2026, Improbable Research
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