Mini-AIR

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

June 2026, issue number 2026-006. 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

03 Women's Energetic Hammer Throw

04 Ig Nobel Ceremony: This and That

05 Item Of Little Interest

06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Unusual Case of Strangulation of Penis by Metal Hammer Head

07 Coffee Stains on Teeth Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pig Space, Not Much, Sex Organ Switcheroo

09 Hammer Head Diameter's Throw Influence

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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: FORCES, then PEOPLE

The special FORCES issue (32:3) is out and about. The table of contents and a preview are at

https://payhip.com/b/IC7FY

The special PEOPLE issue is in prep.

* * *

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 Women's Energetic Hammer Throw

This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:

"Women's Hammer Throw: Measurement Information System and Kinetic Energy of Body Segments and Hammer Head." Marwa Sakr, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Konstanz, 2012.

nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-211352

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04 Ig Nobel Ceremony: This and That

If you haven't obtained tickets (they sold out in less than a week) to attend the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in person on September 3, you can of course watch (free!) the livecast.

There will be a small number of official Watch Parties, in various parts of the world (info on those TBA).

And, further of course, you can organize your own, unofficial, Watch Party.

WHAT: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and WEBCAST

WHERE: Kongresshaus, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND,

WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026, 7:00 pm (CET)

INFO: improbable.com/the-36th-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony/

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05 Item Of Little Interest

Item number 5 (five) of this month's issue of mini-AIR is the least interesting item. It includes little more than a note saying that Item number 5 (five) of this month's issue of mini-AIR is the least interesting item.

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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Unusual Case of Strangulation of Penis by Metal Hammer Head

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"An Unusual Case of Strangulation of Penis by Metal Hammer Head — (a Case Report)," Sulabha V. Punekar, P.R. Shroff, and M.L. Vaze, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 24, no. 1, 1978, pp. 58-59.

journals.lww.com/jopm/abstract/1978/24010/an_unusual_case_of_strangulation_of_penis_by_metal.9.aspx

Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:

HAMMER HEAD STRANGULATION LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

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07 Coffee Stains on Teeth Winner

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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

Winning limerickicist SUSAN YANOW writes:

If your goal is teeth that are white

But coffee is your true delight,

Don’t think that a soak

With OJ or Coke

Will help with your coffee-stain blight.

This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

It's a process I hoped to reverse.

Coffee staining my teeth is a curse.

So I let my teeth soak

In OJ and Coke,

But that made the stains even worse.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pig Space, Not Much, Sex Organ Switcheroo

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

BLOG (improbable.com)

• An Effect of Deep Shrimp Poop on Climate Change

• The Duck Guy is Knighted in The Netherlands

• Preparing for Bloodshed in Space, With Pigs

• “Old Study No Much Talk”

• Insect Sex Organ Switcheroo — New Episode in NHK’s Ig Nobel Prize Winners TV Series

• …and more

SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)

MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch

PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch

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09 Hammer Head Diameter's Throw Influence

This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:

"Influence of the Diameter of the Hammer Head on the Distance of a Hammer Throw," Jesús Dapena and Marilyn A. Teves, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, vol. 53, no. 1, 1982, pp. 78-81.

doi.org/10.1080/02701367.1982.10605229

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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

· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Miraikan Museum, Tokyo, Japan — date TBA

· Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 6-9, 2026

· Luxembourg — Nov 14, 2026

· 2027 Ig Nobel EuroTour — Spring 2027

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

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