mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
May 2026, issue number 2026-005. 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: Special FORCES Issue
03 If Coffee on Dental Students
04 IG NOBEL CEREMONY TIX — Maybe a Few More
05 Past [The 2026 Ig Nobel EuroTour] and Upcoming Events
06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Coffee Stains on Teeth
07 Brain Extraction Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Nettles, and a Tooth Not an Animal
09 Though It May Stain, It Smells Good
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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: Special FORCES Issue
The special FORCES issue (32:3) is out and about, pushing and pulling ideas into and from subscribers. The table of contents and a preview are at
https://payhip.com/b/IC7FY
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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 If Coffee on Dental Students
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Effect If [sic] Coffee and Tea Consumption Among Dental School Students," J. Godlin Jeneta, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, vol. 8, no. 6, 2016, pp. 552-557.
www.pharmainfo.in/jpsr/Documents/Volumes/vol8Issue06/jpsr08061640.pdf
The author explains:
"61% of the students consume coffee/ tea while 14% were not coffee or tea drinkers. 24.4% students rarely consume coffee or tea.
"CONCLUSION: Thus, from this study, we find that Consumption of coffee and tea gives freshness, alertness, it reduces the tiredness and reduces the stress level. It mostly gives the positive energy to the individual."
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04 IG NOBEL CEREMONY TIX — Maybe a Few More
Tickets to attend the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony went fast! We're verifying venue capacity, and expect to release a small number of additional seats. (There is a signup list, if you would like us to notify you the moment they're available):
eventfrog.ch/en/p/science-and-technology/the-36th-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony-7446575553581194400.html#
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 Thursday, September 24, there will be a celebration in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Swiss Consulate, with some Ig Nobel Prize winners, some science songs by Tom Lehrer, and some science-related paintings from the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA). We hope you will join us there (but be aware that seating is very limited). We will announce details soon.
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05 Past [The 2026 Ig Nobel EuroTour] and Upcoming Events
Thank you to everyone who came to the events on this year's Ig Nobel EuroTour, and especially to everyone who helped organize any of the events in GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, GREECE, and THE NETHERLANDS.
We are now starting to organize next spring's (2027) EuroTour. If your institution would like to host an event, please get in touch with us.
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Two public events will happen in the coming weeks in THE NETHERLANDS:
• Dead Duck Day, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 5, 2026. This will be the grandest of the DDD celebrations. It is also the official museum retirement event for Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker, after three decades as curator and then director of the Natural History Museum.
www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/bezoek/activiteiten/activiteit/dead-duck-day-voor-de-laatste-keer-bij-het-museum-5-juni-2026/
• Leiden, The Netherlands, June 11, 2026.
nobel.nl/agenda/ig-nobel-11-jun-2026
All-star Ig Nobel show with Marc Abrahams and:
· Mirjam Tuk (Ig Nobel Medical Prize, 2011): decision-making with a full and empty bladder
· Antoine Deblais & Sander Woutersen (Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize, 2024): the use of chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms
· Ida Sabelis (Ig Nobel Medical Prize, 2000): sex in an MRI scanner – imaging of male and female genitalia in action
· Kees Moeliker (Ig Nobel Biological Prize, 2003): documenting homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.
· 24/7 Lectures by Anna Beukenhorst (Pharmacokinetics), Auke-Florian Hiemstra (Plastic bird nests), Michelle Spierings (Singing parrots and musicality) and Jan van Dijkhuizen (Literature and smell).
· Francesco Camagni will live-illustrate the event.
Some details are on our events listing page
improbable.com/upcoming-events
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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Coffee Stains on Teeth
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Can We Prevent Coffee Stains on Teeth?" Tugce Odabas, Rufat Hajiyev, Ahmet Gultekin, Ozge Ozer Atakoglu, and Osman Tolga Harorli, Journal of Medicinal Food, vol. 24, no. 12, 2021, pp. 1331-1339.
doi.org/10.1089/jmf.2020.0205
The authors explain:
"The teeth submitted to coffee challenges after distillated water or beverages showed a perceptible color change. Soaking in cola or orange juice before coffee immersion caused severe tooth discoloration. All the beverages tested here were not able to protect the tooth from coffee staining. People should be informed that some acidic beverages consumed before a coffee can worsen the coffee-based tooth discolorations."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
BRAIN EXTRACTION LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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07 Brain Extraction Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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
Winning limerickicist DAVID WEINBERGER writes:
How much does your skull contain,
And how much of it is nonbrain?
By surgeon or bot,
Take out what is not:
More carry-on space on a plane.
This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
A team of neurologists ran
My head through an MRI scan.
Though they went to great pain,
They could not find my brain.
With this method, there's hope that they can.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Nettles, and a Tooth Not an Animal
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com)
• The Twelve-Gorilla Nettle Experiment
• Each Worm to His Taste: A Man and His Nettle
• A Tooth, Not an Animal [A Short Long Story in One Abstract]
• …and more
SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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09 Though It May Stain, It Smells Good
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"The Calming Effect of Roasted Coffee Aroma in Patients Undergoing Dental Procedures," Praewpat Pachimsawat, Kanlayanee Tangprasert, and Nattinee Jantaratnotai, Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 2021, article 1384.
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80910-0
The authors explain:
"Salivary α-amylase (sAA) and cortisol (sCort) levels were measured as proxies of sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis responses to stress respectively. Blood pressures and pulse rates were recorded. The results showed that undergoing dental procedures could increase sAA and sCort levels of the patients inhaling sham aroma while those inhaling coffee aroma had significantly decreased sAA and sCort levels (40% and 25% differences, respectively). The pulse rates of those inhaling coffee aroma were also lower. Subjective assessment using visual analog scale was in line with objective measures as well. The preference for coffee aroma or the frequency of coffee drinking had no effect on the sAA and sCort responses."
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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
· European Union of Science Journalists’ Associations (EUSJA ) [online]– June 1, 2026
· New Perspectives on Mesenteric Ischemia Conference, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 5, 2026
· Dead Duck Day, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 5, 2026
· Leiden, The Netherlands, June 11, 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, Cambridge, 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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